


Swiftly Descending Darkness

by TakerFoxx



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Dark Fantasy, Gen, Horror, game prequel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:46:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 123,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23570287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TakerFoxx/pseuds/TakerFoxx
Summary: Gensokyo is a world of monsters, and no one knows that better than its most vulnerable inhabitants. For little Rumia Yagami, this was especially true, as she had lost her entire family to youkai attacks when she was just a baby.Still, things aren't all bad. She and the other orphans are treated well, and they have good-hearted people to look after them. But there is a darkness growing, one that has sunk its tendrils into the wild unknown, into the heart of the Human Village, and even within Rumia herself, and it isn't long before they are beset from dangers on all sides, from without and within.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	1. A Family of Her Own

A Family of Her Own

The Yagamis died the same night that the storms came.

Storms. Consider that concept. To many reading this, storms are mere inconveniences, a time when things get wet, dark, and cold. When one is on its way, we go inside, close the doors, shut the windows, maybe bring a few valuable possessions and fix up the odd leak, and just wait. It could even be exciting, a fun break in the normally calm weather. And when they are over, we go outside, clean up the mess, and go on with our lives.

Even in a wild land such as Gensokyo, where civilization is a luxury rather than a standard, there are places where storms aren’t much more than a time throw up the protection charms, get everyone inside, and keep themselves entertained until the cacophony had passed. Sure, there was danger and damage, but they were temporary problems, not life-changing disasters.

To all of the above, I say this: try living in Wilds sometime. Try keeping your family alive as torrents of rain thick as a waterfall come gushing out of the skies, as blasts of wind powerful enough to throw a full-grown man off his feet rip through the countryside, as lightning rips down from above to strike anything foolish enough to poke its head up, as hillsides collapse, as rivers turn into raging floods, as cellars are swamped and food stores ruined and roofs destroyed and walls pulverized. Out there, far from the safety of the Human Village, the Youkai Mountain, or any other pockets of stability, storms are far from troubling changes in the weather. Whipped up by the untamed country’s natural magics, the storms of Gensokyo are monsters to be feared and respected, and no amount of preparation can guarantee your safety.

But the worst of it wasn’t even the storms themselves. Those were dangers, yes, sometimes even lethally so, but the worst of it were the darker sorts of youkai, the savage sort that kept travelers close to the paths in large groups to avoid. That sort was bad enough, but something about the stormy season whipped them up into a frenzy, and then no one, not even other youkai, were safe.

As such, as soon as the skies started to turn gray and those sensitive to such things felt an all-too-familiar tingle, the call went out. All across the Wilds farmers, loggers, hunters, travelers, and anyone else who lived out there gathered their families together and made for the shelter provided by great halls of the villages and hamlets.

By the time the first of the rains started to fall, the great hall of Three Springs Village was already packed. From his place by the door, Elder Suzuki surveyed the place. Everyone in the village itself was already there, as were most of the inhabitants of the local farmsteads. The children of the Aoki Yume Children’s Home and their caretakers were of course all there, having been among the first to be brought over. A few new faces were there as well, mostly travelers and the occasional magician. There were even a few youkai there as well, mostly low-power fairies and other spirits known to be friendly to the village. They were also welcome. After all, the storms threatened them as well.

However, it wasn’t everyone. Elder Suzuki was halfway through his sixties, and he had seen many a stormy season come and go. As such, he knew the name of everyone that ought to have been there. And there were still three families missing: the Momoes, the Yagamis, and the Naitos. A team of the village’s strongest was out there, sent to find them and bring them to safety, along with any other stragglers they might find. Elder Suzuki prayed for their safety as well.

Despite how crowded the place was, it was eerily quiet. Oh sure, people were talking, eating, and even laughing, but it was mostly in hushed voices, and any laughter died quickly. Everyone seemed to be on edge, listening for the first sign of an approaching youkai gang. Tensions were high, and occasionally an argument would break out, though it was always quickly diffused by the others before it could become a fight.

As for Elder Suzuki, he remained sitting right where he was by the door, all of his senses extended, and what magic he knew was focused on the ring of warning charms set up around the village. The moment anyone set foot past the border, be it Human or otherwise, he would know. That was the worst of it, waiting for that signal, not knowing if when the alarm was sounded, it was going to be their friends or something else.

Silvia, one of the women, walked up to him with a steaming bowl of hot onion soup and a cup of water. He would have preferred wine, but he needed to keep his head clear, so he just accepted them with a nod of thanks.

“Has there been any sign?” she asked as he blew onto the steaming broth.

“Not yet,” he said.

Silvia bit her lower lip. She had friends out there, he knew. She had worked on the Momoes’ farm while growing up, and her husband’s brother was part of the team that had been sent to seek them out.

Sighing, he reached over and gently took her hand. “They’ll be fine,” he said. “Hiromu’s leading the team, and he’s the most capable man I know. If anyone can bring them home, it’s him.”

“I know,” she said. “It’s just-”

Then Elder Suzuki went stiff. The low tingle on the back of his neck had suddenly flared up. Someone had just crossed over the border, setting off the alarm charms.

Then another one did.

Then another.

And another.

Seeing the look in his eyes, Silvia spun around, stuck her fingers in his mouth, and whistled shrilly. What little noise there was silence immediately, and everyone turned to see her gesturing for everyone to remain silent.

His heart pounding, Elder Suzuki extended his senses, trying to get some hint of who was coming. Normally the charms themselves would tell him, but in that rain it was all they could do just to send any kind of signal. Whoever it was, there was a lot of them and they were heading for the great hall.

Then, through the door and through the rain, Elder Suzuki heard voices. Human voices.

“It’s us!” called a familiar voice, followed by a heavy knocking at the large door.

Elder Suzuki felt some small relief, but didn’t allow himself to relax just yet. He got up, opened the small panel in the door, and peered out.

Then he finally let out the breath he was holding. “It’s them!” he called. “Open the door!”

The locks were undone and the heavy door creaked open. A blast of wind roared inside, and heavy rain pelted at anyone standing anywhere near the door.

In they came, eight men escorting a miserable gaggle of men, women, children, and even five more fairies and a couple of other youkai as well. As the young men helped them inside, Elder Suzuki quickly scanned the group, checking off names from the list in his head. To his further relief, the entire team had made it back. He also saw the entire Momoe family there, as well as the rest of their household. Silvia rushed forward to embrace them as her husband ran over to greet his brother.

The Naitos were there as well, which was very good news. They were hunters and furriers that lived far from the village and had little in the way of defenses. Of all those threatened by the storm, they would have been among the most vulnerable.

“Elder Suzuki!” called the young man leading the group. Though his features were covered by the thick hood of his heavy coat, Elder Suzuki recognized him immediately.

“Hiromu,” he said, placing a hand on the young man’s shoulder. “Well done.”

Behind them, the last of the stragglers was brought inside, and the doors closed with a heavy thud, exiling the storm outside. As the other watchers bolted and locked up, Elder Suzuki looked over the group again. “Did you find them all?” he asked. “I don’t see the Yagamis.”

Hiromu pulled the hood off, revealing a mustached face that was very wet and very tired. “No,” he said. “I found everyone I could, but…”

Elder Suzuki’s heart fell. It was as he feared then. “Come,” he said, hoping to get all the details before anything grisly was let slip. “Warm yourself by the fire.”

As the group dispersed to their families, Elder Suzuki and Hiromu walked over to where the other elders were sitting around a blazing fire pit. Someone gave Hiromu a cup of warm wine, which he accepted with a grateful nod and practically collapsed as he sat down.

“What happened?” Elder Suzuki said after Hiromu finished draining the cup.

Hiromu set the cup aside and wiped his mouth with his arm. “It was bad,” he said. “The Yagamis’ farm was the furthest out, so we had to go there last. But it wouldn’t have mattered. A youkai gang had hit it before we even set out.”

A small murmur of dismay went up from the group. Elder Suzuki closed his eyes and whispered a prayer for the souls of their friends.

Hiromu continued. “It was a slaughter. I saw old Junko split in half. The farmhands had all been ripped to pieces, same as Rocco. It looked like they had been trying to defend the place. And the girls-”

“That’s enough,” Elder Suzuki said hastily. He already had enough mental images of people he knew being murdered and defiled. “We don’t need to know that.”

“Of course. I apologize.”

“No need. There were no survivors then?”

Then Hiromu smiled, showing those white teeth that had helped made him a favorite of the young women of the village. “Well now, I wouldn’t say that.” He leaned back and craned his neck to look over to one of the men that had been part of his rescue party. “Watanabe! Bring her over here.”

Watanabe walked over to them. It was then that Elder Suzuki noticed the small bundle wrapped in blankets held in the man’s arms.

Elder Suzuki’s brow rose. “Really?” he said.

Watanabe nodded and smiled. He pulled aside the blankets, revealing the small, chubby face of a sleeping infant girl, one only a couple months old.

She had her mother’s straw-blonde hair and her father’s round little nose. Though he had seen many a marriage in his time, Elder Suzuki still remembered the day that the child’s parents were wed. Rocco Yagami had been so nervous that he nearly repeated the same line of his vows no fewer than three times before Elder Suzuki had gently reminded him of the next part. Not that Miho, his bride, had done much better. She had been so lightheaded that she almost had walked right past her groom and right into the wall. She had claimed that it had been the fault of the veil. But when the two of them had been joined in the eyes of their family, of their friends, of their ancestors, of the sky, and of the gods, they looked so radiant together that their earlier missteps had not mattered in the slightest.

And when they had welcomed their first daughter into the world, it had been difficult to imagine couple that had been more happy or more proud.

Elder Suzuki had seen so much death in his years, so many friends gone, so many fine people taken before their time. The Wilds were hard, often cruel, and even if one escaped becoming a snack for the youkai or evil spirits, then there were several dozen other ways to die, from disease to disaster. It was always hardest when it happened to children, while was far too often the case, especially when man-eating youkai were involved. They took children. They _preferred_ children, and there was quite often little left to be found.

The Yagamis and their household were all good people, and they would be mourned. Still, Elder Suzuki knew what a miracle it was that even one had survived, much less their youngest.

“How?” he said.

“Their safe room,” Hiromu answered. “They had it made special, hidden beneath the barn. Would’ve passed right by it, but as it turns out, Watanabe here helped them build it.” He clapped his friend on the shoulder. “Did a damned good job of it too, thing was so hard to find. Found her tucked away down there, fast asleep.”

Watanabe smiled proudly, though it didn’t last long. He had been Rocco’s friend after all.

“Amazing,” Elder Suzuki said, shaking his head. “Though I wonder why no one was down there with her.”

“Who knows?” Hiromu said with a shrug. “The dead keep their secrets, and keep them well. I’m just glad we found her.”

“I remember right after she was born,” Watanabe said sadly. “Rocco was in the tavern, and he was just so happy, buying drinks for everyone and singing songs. I said to him, ‘Rocco, you’ve got four now, and they’re all girls! When will you make a proper heir?’ You know what he did? He looked at me like I was crazy and said, ‘Let me tell you something: when my girls grow up, they’ll be able to whip any boys in the village hollow. Guarantee it. I don’t need no boys when I have them.’” He shook his head and sighed. “Gods, the poor bastard.”

Elder Suzuki laid a hand on his shoulder. “He would rejoice, knowing that even one escaped alive.”

“I know. But still…”

It was then that the tiny bundle in the stocky man’s arms starting to stir. The girl blinked her brown eyes. Then her face contorted and she started to cry.

“Oh,” Watanabe said, looking alarmed. “I, ah, don’t really know what to-”

Turning to the rest of the crowd, Elder Suzuki raised his voice. “Satoko!” he called over to a small group of adults surrounded by children. “Satoko Yume!”

The middle-aged woman in charge of the Aoki Yume’s Children’s Home looked up in surprise.

Elder Suzuki crooked a finger, beckoning her over.

Still bewildered, Satoko gently set down the young boy she had been holding and made her way over to Elder Suzuki and the others. “What’s wrong?” she said when she neared.

In answer, Watanabe showed her the fussing girl in her arms.

“Oh!” Satoko said in realization. “Oh, the poor thing. She’s all alone, isn’t she?”

“Only survivor of a youkai attack,” Hiromu told her as Watanabe passed the child over. “Whole family gone.”

“It was the Yagamis,” Elder Suzuki said. “They had a farm, far out in the Wilds. Apparently they got hit before the storms even started.”

To this, Satoko bowed her head. “The good spirits guide them safely across the River Suzune.”

“Agreed,” Elder Suzuki said. “Her name is Rumia. You…will look after her, won’t you?”

“Of course I will!” She sat down and started rocking Rumia back and forth, shushing her soothingly. “That’s what I do, after all. Rumia is more than welcome-”

“Is _that_ a _baby?”_

The new voice was loud, childish, and obnoxious. Everyone looked up to see a small blue-haired fairy with six crystalline wings rushing toward them.

Most of their group scowled, no doubt partially because of the rude interruption but also because none of them were feeling particularly friendly toward youkai of any kind. Elder Suzuki was much more tolerant of their magical neighbors, so long as they were of the benign variety, but even he wasn’t exactly in the mood to put up with their nonsense.

Heedless of this, the fairy shoved herself practically into the flustered Satoko’s lap, trying to see the child. “C’mon, let me see!”

“All right, no,” Hiromu said, getting up. He seized the fairly by the arm and roughly yanked her away.

“Hey!” she said, whirling to face him. Planting her hands on her hips, she thrust her lip out and scowled. “Don’t touch me, or I’ll freeze your arm off!”

“Try it,” Hiromu warned. “Try it, and I’ll-”

Elder Suzuki cleared his throat, drawing both of their attention. “The child is scared and tired and needs her rest,” he said to the fairy. “So it’s best to leave her alone.”

The fairy’s scowl deepened. “But I wanna see the baby!” she whined.

“Didn’t you hear him? Leave the poor thing alone!” Hiromu waved the fairy off. “Go on. Get!”

The fairy gave him one last glower. She stuck out her little pink tongue and pulled down one eyelid with her finger before turning to run off back to her friends.

“Obnoxious little nuisance,” Hiromu growled as everyone settled back down. “Why do we even let them in?”

“Nuisances they might be, but even they deserve protection from the storms and what the storm brings,” Elder Suzuki told him, his tone gently chiding.

Hiromu sighed. “Fair,” he admitted.

That done, Elder Suzuki turned his attention back to the squirming bundle in Satoko’s arms. She was rocking little Rumia back and forth, whispering to her in soothing tones.

Elder Suzuki shook his head. The poor Yagamis. They did not deserve what had happened to them; no one did. It was just one of the many dangers that they had to accept living out in the Wilds like they did, but it never made it easier when it happened.

As for Rumia, the fates had done her a cruel turn, but at the very least she was alive and would be cared for and loved. Satoko was a good woman, who cared deeply for the children that had been brought into her house.

Then he cast a dour glance, not at anyone within the hall, but to the northwest, where sat the Human Village, the center of Gensokyo’s Human population.

Satoko was a good woman, and those she cared for were innocents in need of all the support and protection that could be provided.

Unfortunately, not everyone agreed.

…

_Twelve years later…_

This was torture.

Rumia felt the yawn forming and didn’t even try to stifle it. What was the point? Everyone else was ending toward sleep, lulled off by the warm Sun and Ms. Haruna’s droning voice.

Ms. Haruna Ishii looked like a boulder. She stood about a meter and a half high, was nearly as wide as she was tall, had no neck, and a face like a pit bull’s. No one knew her age, and no one had ever mustered up the courage to ask. And while she certainly knew a lot about numbers and what one might do with them, she had never bothered to figure out a way to pass that knowledge in a way that didn’t immediately make Rumia’s eyes start to cross and her brain to shut off all non-critical functions purely out of self-defense.

To help keep herself awake, Rumia looked around the room, hoping to find something interesting to amuse herself.

Unfortunately, all she found were more kids looking as bored as she was.

Fat Keiichi Matsuda was scribbling something on his chalkboard that probably had nothing to do with numbers. Loopy Kana Anaberal, who was usually at least interesting to watch, wasn’t doing anything weirder than follow dust motes in sunbeams with her eyes. Even Rumia’s mortal enemy Haruko was of one mind with Rumia in that she was struggling mightily to keep her eyes open. The only one that seemed to be paying any sort of significant attention was that outsider girl Melissa Garcia, and that was probably because she honestly didn’t speak great Japanese and was trying to just make sense of anything she was hearing.

Rumia sighed. If the other kids couldn’t be counted on to be entertaining, them what good were they?

Then she turned her head to look over to the opposite side of the classroom, where her two closest friends were sitting, one right in the front of the other. The one in the front was Kohta Momoi, a boy her age with naturally spiky black hair and eyelids so narrow that it often difficult to tell if they were open or closed, a quirk that he often exploited to his advantage, as he was now. Kohta sat with his back leaning against the chair at a slight angle, face directed toward the blackboard, and hands folded on the desk in front of him. At a glance it would appear that he was paying rapt attention, but he was in fact fast asleep, having long figured out the perfect pose to let his body settle into without giving away the game. Rumia deeply envied him for that.

Behind him was a girl who did not share his skills or natural advantages and was struggling mightily to keep from nodding off. Though she was of the same age as Rumia and Kohta, she looked to be only about half that, with a scrawny little body and shimmering silver hair cut straight just below her ears. Keine Kamishirasawa had been at the orphanage as long as Rumia and Kohta, but she didn’t complete their trio until a few years ago, when the two of them had caught a few of the others bullying her and had driven them off. While neither of them were averse to killing a few idle minutes by tormenting some of their fellow orphans, they preferred to save that sort of thing to those who really deserved it and could at least fight back. Picking on someone just because they were smaller than everyone else and looked kind of weird was just unsportsmanlike. After that, Keine stuck around with them for safety, and before they knew it their duo had grown by one.

Rumia eyed the two, calculations running in her mind. Getting their attention without attracting Ms. Ishii’s attention was going to be tricky, as a few unfortunate failed past attempts had taught her. At the moment Ms. Ishii was facing the kids as she droned on and on, but sooner or later she would turn around. To prepare, Rumia scribbled a brief message on a piece of paper. Then she stealthily tore up a second paper into pieces and crumpled them up. That done, she waited.

Oblivious to the conspiracy that was hatching right under her nose, Ms. Ishii went on and on about stuff that nobody cared about. Rumia tensed up. Any second now. Come on, any second now.

Then Ms. Ishii turned her back to the class to write something boring on the chalkboard. Now!

Rumia tossed one of the paper wads right at Keine. It had to be Keine. There was no guarantee that she would be able to wake Kohta with that alone, and even if she did, if he awoke too abruptly it might catch Ms. Ishii’s attention, as they had learned on one unfortunate occasion.

Unfortunately, her first toss failed to clear the classroom and hit the floor right next to Keine’s chair without her so much as noticing.

Scowling, Rumia tried again. This time her aim was true and the wad landed neatly on Keine’s desk. Startled, the silver-haired girl jerked back to full wakefulness and blinked down at the new addition to the clutter on her desk. Then, putting two and two together, she glanced over to Rumia, one eyebrow quirked in askance.

In answer, Rumia held up her chalkboard. On it was just a quick sketch of a chocolate chip cookie and a question mark.

Eyes widening in realization, Keine quickly glanced back to Ms. Ishii to see if she was going to look their way anytime soon. When it was clear that she wasn’t, Keine looked back to Rumia, smiled, and gave a quick nod.

Okay, that was two of them. Number three would be up to Keine. She slowly reached up and gently shook Kohta’s shoulder, which they had learned was the best way to wake him without scaring him. It wouldn’t do to have him cry out in surprise, after all.

Kohta jerked slightly, but made no sound. He glanced over his shoulder at Keine, who then directed his attention to Rumia. Within the space of three seconds, Kohta had scanned the message, comprehended it, and gave Rumia a sly grin and a quick thumb’s up. All right, three for three. The game was set.

Then Ms. Ishii turned toward them again, and they quickly snapped back to their original positions, all traces of their plan removed. Rumia was satisfied. Their path was now set, and all she had to do was wait those last few minutes in order to carry things out.

…

Night was falling on the orphanage. Classes were done, sunlight was retreating, and the belabored staff were all taking a few much-needed moments to relax.

In other words, the perfect time to strike.

Three small figures crept down the hall on hands and knees, careful to avoid any boards that creaked, shoes off and socks covering both their hands and feet. Ahead of them, the door to the kitchen was slightly open, and from within a low, repetitive sound could be heard.

_Slice. Slice. Slice._

The three of them lined up along the crack of the door, Kohta on the bottom, Rumia on his back, and Keine on hers. The three of them peered in.

The Children’s Home kitchen was a long, rectangular brick room, lined with counters. A wooden table sat in the middle of it like an island, and on the right-hand side were windows to the outside, right over the sink. The evening meal was being prepared, and all sorts of ingredients were out. A young woman stood at one of the counter, methodically slicing onions with a large knife.

_Slice. Slice. Slice._

The three children exchanged grim looks. Their path was a dangerous one, but rewarding. On top of a shelf at the far end of the kitchen sat a large ceramic jar. And within that jar was their prize.

Cookies. Sweet, succulent cookies. A prize more than worth a little risk. They just had to get past the woman.

And…therein lay the problem.

Keine slid off of Rumia’s back and Rumia off of Kohta’s. The three of them retreated back from the door and huddled together. Nothing was said. Rumia merely nodded, and the other two scampered off down the hall, to the door to the outside.

Now alone, Rumia inched back to the door and watched. The others would do their part. All she had to do was wait.

Oblivious to the heist taking place right under her nose, the woman continued on, reducing leeks to pieces in slow, mechanical fashion.

_Slice. Slice. Slice._

Rumia tensed up. Any second now, any second…

“WAAAAAAHHHH!”

Showtime.

The woman’s head jerked up, and she abandoned what she was doing to rush over to the window. Throwing it open, she practically leaned her whole body out and called, “What happened?”

“Keine’s hurt!” Kohta’s voice called back. “She slipped on a rock and skinned her shin! Oh my gods, there’s blood everywhere!”

The woman sighed. “Oh, for the love of-” She shook her head. “Hold on, I’m coming!” She flung open a cabinet, grabbed a bag of bandages and other treatments and shot outside. She didn’t even bother with the door but instead leapt right through the window in one smooth, graceful motion.

Rumia’s window of opportunity was now open, but it wouldn’t be for long. She bolted into the room, scampering across the floor, under the table, and toward the far counter. Snatching up a three-legged stool, she propped it against the counter and climbed on top. Then she stood on her tiptoes and stretched up, reaching for the jar.

 _Almost there. I’m almost there._ The jar was just out of reach. Stretching her legs even further, Rumia’s fingers brushed the jar’s edge.

Then a wooden spoon came whistling through the air and struck the back of her hand.

Crying out in pain and surprise, Rumia lost her balance and, to her horror, started to fall backward.

Time slowed. Rumia watched as the shelf and its maddeningly faraway treasure moved further and further away. Her gaze moved up to center on the ceiling, which was also drawing away. She was dimly aware of the impact that awaited her, and to her surprise she was not afraid.

W _ell, I guess this is it. Oh well. Everyone has to die sometime._

Then she stopped.

Rumia gasped out loud. She had stopped in a vertical position, at a perfect ninety-degree angle from the stool, her heels still on the edge of the stool top, with the rest of her body hovering in the air, unaffected by gravity.

 _I’m flying,_ she thought numbly. Holy cow, she was flying! She didn’t need to take the class after all; she had figured it out all by herself!

A wealth of possibilities revealed itself to her mind. She could shoot through the sky, dipping and darting through the clouds. She could play with the fairies, chase birds, be unstoppable at tag, anything! She could hover on the ceiling, just out of sight, and drop whatever she wanted on whatever poor sap that wandered by! She could go wherever she wanted, whenever she wanted, and nobody would be able to-

Then Rumia became aware of something pressing against her back, and her joy evaporated. She was _not_ flying after all. Quite the contrary, something was holding her up.

A sinking feeling started to form in her stomach, and her gaze went upward. Sure enough, there was a face glowering down at her, that of a woman with pale skin, dark red eyes, and silvery lavender hair that was almost white.

The woman smiled, and Rumia cringed. Oh _crap._

Suddenly the hand set against her back suddenly yanked back, pulling Rumia off the chair. The woman held her up by the back of her collar, lifting the child up as easily as if Rumia were a stuffed animal.

It was then that Rumia saw that she was not alone. Both Kohta and Keine were also dangling by their collars in the woman’s other hand. Kohta looked quite put out, probably annoyed that their perfect plan had failed so spectacularly, while Keine just had her head bowed in shame. Her knee was still dripping with the chicken blood they had smeared all over it for effect.

“Well, well, well,” said Miss Fujiwara no Mokou, the orphanage’s cook. “Look who it is. Really, guys? Really? This trick again? I mean, fool me once and all that. Did you really think you could pull it twice?”

Rumia sighed and slumped.

“And come on. Now? You’re pulling this now, with flying lessons right around the corner? Can you really afford getting another strike? You know they’ll just make you sit them out.”

Rumia jerked in shock, and given the stricken looks on their faces her friends felt the same. Oh _crap,_ they hadn’t thought of that.

“So now I’m wondering if I should just turn you three in now. I mean, I’d hate to leave you all tethered to the ground for the rest of your lives while all your friends go soaring through the air, but rules are rules.”

“It was me!” Kohta suddenly blurted out. “It was my idea, I talked them into it! So don’t-”

“Yeah, no,” Miss Mokou said flatly. “That’s really noble of you and all, but give me a break. It doesn’t matter which one of you gets the original idea, the other two are always down for anything. Seriously, it’s like your minds are linked or something. Besides, aren’t heists usually Rumia’s thing?”

Still dangling in the air, Rumia crossed her arms and sulked.

“That’s what I thought.” Then Miss Mokou got a thoughtful look. “Still, kids will be kids, and making you sit out flying lessons seems a little harsh, so…”

The three waited with bated breath as Miss Mokou mulled over the situation. If one were to ask Rumia, the cook was taking her sweet time doing it too.

“Okay, how about this?” Miss Mokou said at last. “I won’t turn you in, and exchange you three get dishes duty.”

That was it? What a relief. Cleaning dishes wasn’t any fun, but it was loads better than never getting to learn how to fly.

“For the rest of the week.”

Oof. Ouch. Rumia grimaced. A whole week of scrubbing pots and bowls sounded like a nightmare. There were so many mouths to feed that the sink was often a disaster area by the end of the day. Sometimes it would take them hours to get through them all, and they always felt greasy disgusting when it was over.

Still…it was better than the alternative.

“Well?”

Rumia exchanged a look with her friends. They didn’t seem anymore happy about it than she was, but after a moment they all nodded.

“Good to hear.” Mokou abruptly dropped to the floor, which caused Keine to squeak with surprise. “Now shoo. Off with you.”

As the three failed bandits retreated from the kitchen, Kohta muttered to the others, “We should have just left her in the snow.”

“I heard that,” Mokou called after them. “Just for that, you get the _big_ pot.”

“Nice job, lunkhead,” Rumia whispered back as Kohta’s face fell with dismay.


	2. Storm on the Horizon

Storm on the Horizon

Stopping gossip from getting out at the Aoki Yume’s Children’s Home was like trying to catch the wind in your fist. Sure, you ended up with a handful of air, but the wind itself didn’t seem to notice and before you knew it all your stuff was knocked over.

Rumia hadn’t told anyone about their misadventure. Kohta hadn’t told anyone about their misadventure. Keine definitely hadn’t told anyone about their misadventure. And say what you will about Miss Mokou, but she was a woman of her word.

Still, by the time dinner had rolled around, _everyone_ knew.

No one said anything to them. There were no questions, no comments, no taunts. But Rumia could still tell. She could tell by some of the sidelong glances and smirks from the ones she didn’t like. She could tell from the pitying looks from those that she did. How word had gotten out when none of those who had actually been there would ever tell, she didn’t know. Maybe someone had so happened to be near enough to hear. It didn’t matter. Word always got out.

Rumia sighed. To be perfectly honest, she didn’t really give a crap about their punishment. They were in trouble all the time! This wasn’t the first time they had been given extra chores as a result and it wouldn’t be the last. It was gross and annoying, but whatever. It would pass.

The problem was that, as always, being in trouble made them vulnerable.

Supper was fish stew, and while Rumia liked it well enough, she was not looking forward to dealing with that fishy smell afterward. She tried to eat quickly, so as not to get too much of the taste stuck on her tongue.

“Head’s up,” Kohta muttered.

“Huh?”

Kohta nodded to their right. Sitting across from them down the table were their arch-nemeses Haruko Kamijima, Eiko Goto, and Hayate Maeda. The three of them had been the ones that Rumia and Kohta had caught tormenting Keine to begin with, and the two trios had been enemies ever since. Which was fine. Sometimes you just needed an enemy to make life more interesting.

Unfortunately, having an enemy also made other times all the more hard to take. Such as now.

Apparently the three of them had been trying to get Rumia and her friends’ attention. They were already leering at them when Rumia looked up, and as soon as Rumia was looking their way they started snickering.

Then, with deliberate slowness, Haruko reached up with a single finger and stuck it into her nostril. She dug around for a bit before pulling out a slimy, greyish-green blob. Grinning at Rumia, she smeared it across the inside of her bow.

Suddenly Rumia didn’t really care for the rest of her meal. “Thanks,” she hissed to Kohta. “I _really_ needed to see that.”

“You’re washing theirs,” Kohta remarked.

“Uh, am not? Why should I?”

“Because the cookie raid was your idea. And I’m already stuck with the big pot, so it’s only fair. Or are you going to make Keine do it?”

Keine, who had been lost in thought as she pushed pieces of stew around in her bowl, suddenly looked up at the sound of her name. “Huh?” she said. “What about me?”

Rumia and Kohta exchanged a glance. Rumia sighed. “Nothing,” she growled. “I got it.”

“Got what? What happened?”

 _“Nothing!_ Gods, drop it!”

Keine still looked confused, but she knew better than to press the subject, so she shrugged and went back to her private musing. Rumia shot Kohta a glare. In response, Kohta just shrugged.

“Jerk,” Rumia muttered.

“Youkaiass,” he whispered back.

“Fairypuss.”

“Shiteater.”

“Will you two grow up?” Keine said.

“Never,” Rumia and Kohta said in unison.

…

It was, as predicted, a thoroughly miserable experience.

Eighteen kids lived at the orphanage. Eighteen kids, plus the six grown-ups that took care of them. That meant twenty-four bowls, twenty-four plates, twenty-four sets of utensils, and twenty-four cups, plus everything that Miss Mokou used to make the large meals for everyone.

Kohta had been stuck taking care of that last bit, and now he was on his hands and knees deep inside the big black pot that Mokou had cooked the stew in, scrubbing every bit of fish goop away. He had to emerge every few seconds to gag and cough before taking a deep breath and plunging back in again. Rumia sympathized. It wasn’t that it smelled _bad,_ of course. It was just that it smelled a lot.

She and Keine were taking care of the bowls, plates, cups, and utensils, and unfortunately Rumia herself was doing the actual cleaning while Keine had been lucky enough to be left with the drying and stacking. Technically, Keine’s job was the more lengthy one, but Rumia’s was by far the grossest.

Most of the bowls were mostly picked clean, leaving just the residue. Others…were not. And Rumia knew the second that she came to Haruko’s.

Nearby, Miss Mokou was lounging on a stool in a corner, a lit cigarette in her mouth as she smugly watched them. “You know,” she said around puffs of smoke. “I know kids will be kids. And I sure as hell know that _you_ three all got a bit of devil in you. But _come on!_ Now? When flying lessons are right around the corner? With the market trip… _tomorrow?_ Would’ve thought that you’d have more sense than that.”

Rumia clamped her jaw tight to keep from letting a smart remark slip. She kept on scrubbing.

“Ah well, guess we’re all servants to our natures. Especially in this godsinfested country. Spirits will wander, fairies will forever be stupid, and you will-”

“Um, Miss Mokou?” Keine said suddenly.

Miss Mokou paused, no doubt a bit taken back at being interrupted. Then she said, “Yeah?”

“How come we can only ever get to see other people when the big market goes up? How come we can never actually get to go to the Human Village anymore?”

Rumia, who had only been listening with half an ear, suddenly heard a sharp sizzling sound. She turned around.

Miss Mokou’s cigarette was burning. Not just lit, but _burning,_ a small ring of fire traveling down its length, turning it into ash as it went. What was more, it wasn’t coming from the lit end, but out from Miss Mokou’s mouth.

Soon Miss Mokou was just left with a cylinder of solid ash stuck between her lips.

She let out one last cloud of cigarette smoke, and the ash fell apart. She spat out the rest. “Because, Keine,” Miss Mokou said, her voice calm but filled with barely repressed anger. “It’s like I was saying. We all have our natures. Kids will get into mischief, fairies will be stupid, youkai will be wild.” She picked up her cigarette box from the nearby kitchen counter and her nose wrinkled in annoyance when she saw that it was empty. She tossed it into the nearby trash bucket. “And fools will be fools.”

Kohta looked up from his ordeal. “What does _that_ mean?” he said. “What fools?”

Miss Mokou shook her head. “Never you mind.” She leaned forward on the stool, her long forearms perched in her knees while her hands dangled in between her legs like a pair of hanging spiders. “Listen to me, kids. Yeah, we expect you to mind the grown-ups here in this house, but just because someone’s a grown-up doesn’t make them wise, or even smart. There are plenty of people who get as old as the hills but remain dumber than any one of you. And the Human Village is _crawling_ with that kind of idiot.”

“But why?” Keine said. “What does that have to do with us not being allowed in?”

Miss Mokou shook her head. “Never you mind,” she said again. “Just remember: as you grow up, you’re probably gonna hear some people say some nasty things. But don’t you believe any of it. You might be annoying little cockroaches sometimes, but there’s nothing wrong with you kids at all.”

“Wrong?” Rumia frowned. “Wait, who’s saying that something’s wrong with us?”

“Idiots. Like I said earlier. Just idiots.” Then Ms. Mokou sighed. “Look, you guys are good for tonight. Go ahead and go to bed. And seriously, next time you try to pull one over on me, at least come up with something new, okay?”

“Okay,” Rumia said, though she was still very confused. “Um, good night, Miss Mokou. “She, Kohta, and Keine all started to head for the door.

“Oh, wait, hold up,” Miss Mokou said suddenly.

The trio turned around, half-expecting to be presented with some last-minute labor.

Instead, Miss Mokou was holding out a sizzling metal tray. On it were three freshly baked ginger cookies with chunks of apple.

Rumia perked up in surprise. “Uh, huh? Really?”

In response, Mokou winked and held a finger to her lips. “Shhhh.”

That sounded as fair a deal as Rumia had ever heard. She and her friends took the offered treats, bowed in thanks, and hurried off.

…

Mokou sat alone in her kitchen, eyes still fixed on the door that her favorite band of troublemakers had just departed through.

Even though she cared for every child who lived at the Aoki Yume’s Children’s Home, even the mean ones, she had always had a soft spot for those three. After all, it had been them that had found her lifeless body buried in the snow and had it dragged back to the orphanage two years prior. It had been them that had sort of taken her under their wing after her shockingly quick recovery and showed her around. It had been them that had convinced her to abandon the endless cycle of hatred and pain her life had been. It had been them that had convinced her to find a new purpose in life, to stay.

Mokou smiled. Even after she had been accepted into the family, those three had still seemed to be unable to stay away from her, though as her tormentors rather than her caretakers. They seemed to take personal delight in trying to pull one over on her, to make her fall victim to their endless pranks and schemes when most of the other kids seemed to be a little afraid of her. As someone who had grown up with several older brothers, Mokou appreciated that. It had been a long time since anything had reminded her of the few good times in her life.

Then, as she mused on the drastic change her life had taken in the last couple of years, there was a knock at the back door.

Mokou rose and went to answer it.

Standing outside was a woman. A very short woman, one that was barely taller than the kids that Mokou had just been talking to and could probably be mistaken for a child herself if one didn’t know better like Mokou did. Her short, black hair was curly; her eyes dark maroon; and she was wearing a fleecy pink dress, a carrot-shaped pendant on a slender silver chain around her neck, and probably not a whole lot else. In one hand she was holding the handle of a lit lantern while the other clutched the handle of a large wooden mallet that was resting over her shoulder.

Also, sticking out of her hair was a pair of white rabbit’s ears.

“Heeeeeeeeeeey Mokou,” the rabbit said. “What up, girl?”

Mokou looked her up and down and sighed. “Tewi. Well, hello, but seriously. We’ve talked about this.”

“About what, Phoenix?” Tewi said with a wry grin.

“You’re on Human lands now. I don’t care that it’s almost midnight. Could you at least put on a hat?”

“Hmmm.” Tewi placed the head of her mallet on the ground and made a show of thoughtfully tapping her lower lip. Then she shook her head. “Nah.”

Mokou shot her a look. “Seriously, Tewi. Is it too much to ask that you just keep your ears covered? You know people’ll start talking if a fucking youkai keeps showing up here in the dead of night.”

“That is, how do they say, not my problem.” Tewi stepped to one side and gestured. “Besides, one might think that you would be a little more polite and less judgy about someone providing you with all these?”

Outside were four large wicker baskets, each filled with a different kind of food. One contained rose red apples, one with freshly caught fish, one with white and purple turnips, and one with onions.

“Oh, I’m grateful,” Mokou said as she grabbed the handles of two of the baskets with one hand apiece. Each one of them would have been difficult for two large men working together but she lifted them both with ease. “I’m super grateful. But come on, you know how things are now.”

Tewi hopped inside and jumped up to sit on the counter next to the sink. “Oh, I hear. Word has reach my ickle lickle ears that your Human friends don’t really like us anymore. Again.”

“Right,” Mokou sighed. “Fucking Sonozikas.”

“Well, that’s what you get for not finishing the job.”

“Hey, I finished the job.” Mokou set the baskets down and went back for the other two. “Everyone I barbequed had it coming. But I’m not going to kill someone’s kids just because their dad is a murderous bastard that needed to be slow-cooked inside his own armor.”

“Which is what you did to him.”

“Well, yeah.”

“Uh-huh. And how did _that_ little bit of mercy turn out?”

Mokou shrugged. “Look, if it wasn’t the Sonozikas, it would be someone else. They do this shit all time. You could set your calendar to whether or not the Human Village hates youkai.”

“Yeah, you Humans are weird. At least we keep our grudges personal.”

Setting the last two baskets down, Mokou shut the back door. “So do I, if you’ll remember.”

“Yeah, speaking of which, you wanna know what Kaguya’s been up too?”

Mokou had to take several seconds to breathe in deeply and slowly exhale. “I,” she said icily, “could not give less of a shit.”

“Oh, come on! Aren’t you at least a little curious?”

“I’m done with Kaguya,” Mokou said flatly. “That’s the whole point, remember?”

Tewi grinned in that insufferably disbelieving way of hers. “Yeeeeaaaahhhhh, bullshit.”

Mokou leaned up against the door and folded her arms. “Think what you want. I’m done. She can go back to the Moon for all I care.”

“Uh-huh. Okay, fine.”

Silence fell between them. Tewi remained seated on the counter, her legs swinging, while Mokou stayed where she was, leaning nonchalantly against the door.

She reached into her pocket but frowned when she remembered that she had just smoked her last cigarette earlier. Damn. She made a mental note to tell Joshua to pick her up a new pack tomorrow.

Then she glanced at Tewi, who was still idly swinging her legs while her head bobbed from side to side as she hummed a nonsensical tune, seemingly without a care in the world.

Then Mokou sighed. Damn it. “Okay, _fine,”_ she said. “Tell me what the moonbitch has been up to.”

Tewi grinned in triumph. “Pottery!”

“Eh?”

“I’m serious. She’s, like, majorly into pottery now. She’s been spending every day with heaps of clay, just shaping pot after pot after pot. They’re not even that good. She doesn’t even paint them or anything, and doesn’t seem to care about them once they’re done. When she has too many, she just throws them away to make more room.”

“Oh really?”

“Oh yeah. At least it’s better than her _last_ hobby.”

Mokou scratched the back of her neck. “I heard she started to fancy herself as a playwright.”

“Ha! See? You do care.” Tewi sighed. “And yup. She did.”

“Dare I ask what her little dramas were about?”

“Her, mostly. About her killing you once and for all. Or making you her slave. Or conquering the Moon. Or about all the princesses of the world falling madly in love with her and becoming her personal harem. You know. Stuff like that.”

Which was more or less exactly the sort of thing Kaguya would probably write. “Any of them any good?”

Tewi hesitated. “They…have their fans.”

“So no.”

“Oh, gods no, they were awful.”

Mokou found herself smirking. “So basically what you’re telling me is that Princess Kaguya is bored out of her mind.”

“Oh, totally. You don’t just wage eternal war against your hated rival for centuries and expect to cope when it’s suddenly over.”

“Ha! So, I get to enjoy my live peacefully here and still torture her. Best of both worlds.”

“Well, you know what they say about living well. At least I don’t have to help clear away charred rubble and rebuild Eientei every couple of months anymore.” Then something incredibly rare happened, something that Mokou had only seen a handful of times in her lifetime, and her lifetime had provided plenty of opportunities for just about anything to happen: Tewi’s face turned serious. “Though, hey, Mokou. Need to tell you something.”

Mokou tilted her head to one side and frowned.

“Something’s…up. Nothing to do with us or Kaguya or anything, but still: something’s up.”

“Something? What kind of something specifically?”

Tewi shook her head. “I don’t know exactly, but I know a guy who knows a girl whose cousin’s girlfriend said something about some weird shit going down in the Youkai Forest.”

Mokou pursed her lips. Given how wild it was, the forests of Gensokyo were not to be traveled lightly. The Bamboo Forest of the Lost from which Tewi hailed from was probably the safest, and that one was notorious for perplexing unwary travelers. Everyone knew to never go into the Forest of Magic unless they wanted their blood drank and soul stolen away. In times past and present, it had served as a sanctuary for some of Gensokyo’s most notorious monsters, from Shinji the Silver Tongued to Madam Mima, and the stain of their presence still lingered centuries after their deaths, quite literally in Madam Mima’s case. Even Mokou, who was accustomed to wandering the dangerous corners of the world, preferred to give it a wide berth.

And then there was the Youkai Forest. It wasn’t quite as bad as the Forest of Magic. At least, it didn’t have a reputation to homing any of Gensokyo’s Most Wanted. But it was still plenty dangerous, with many dark spirits and strange ongoings taking place beneath its sunlight-choking canopy. And its borders sat just a little too close to the Children’s Home for Mokou’s comfort. In the past, youkai have ventured out to take orphans. It hadn’t happened for quite a while, and certainly never since Mokou had arrived, but it had happened. And the rest of the Human population wasn’t exactly as mindful about the orphanage’s safety as they once had been.

Tewi’s information might be around fifth-hand, but whenever she took something seriously, she always had good reason to.

“Anything in specific you’ve heard?” Mokou asked. “Any details?”

Tewi shook her head. “Not much. Just that _something_ has got folks in there excited. And, well, look: the youkai in there might be a bunch of morbid weirdoes, but most of them just want to be left alone. Don’t bother them, and they won’t rip your face off and use it as a doily. But there are a few of the really nasty types in there, ones that I think might actually try something.”

“You don’t have to tell me of _that_ sort,” Mokou growled. “Believe me, I know.”

“Yeah, you would, wouldn’t you? Anyway, I don’t know exactly is going down, but…keep an eye out, okay?”

“I will,” Mokou promised. “Thanks.”

“Notta problem.” Tewi hopped off the counter. “If it keeps you happy and not burning things over on our turf.” She picked up her mallet and lantern. “Anyways, Imma split. Try not to burn the place down.”

“That I won’t,” Mokou said as she got the door for her.

Mokou watched as Tewi wandered off into the night. It wasn’t until the light from the lantern had disappeared entirely that she took her eyes off of the road.

Then she glanced off toward the horizon. The Children’s Home was surrounded by mostly rolling fields of grass, which was ideal for the kids. It gave them plenty of room to run around, and made it easier to keep an eye on them.

But beyond that was the gnarled trees and long shadows of the Youkai Forest. And like Tewi said, there were plenty of monsters lurking within.

Mokou ought to know. It wasn’t so long ago that she was counted as one of them.

Usually when the kids were taken to market, Mokou would stay behind. Preparing the day’s meals took a lot of time and work, and even if it didn’t, she hated crowds on principle and never did well with large numbers of other Humans. It just brought back too many bad memories. However, she decided that she just might come along this one time. If something was up, then this was the best to get to the root of things.


	3. A Chilly Reception

A Chilly Reception

"All right, children!" Miss Satoko called. She clapped her hands together. "Two lines, that's it. All together now!"

Most of the children obeyed. Others did not.

Shaking her head, Mokou pressed a couple fingers against her mouth and whistled shrilly.

The rest of the children hurried over to line up.

"Thank you, Mokou," Miss Satoko said. She nodded to the town guards that had come to escort them. "All right, now let's go!"

Technically speaking, the orphanage was still within the land claimed by the Human Village and there was little between it and the market other than distance, but that was no excuse to be lax in the orphans' protection. It would take an especially foolish youkai to attack them this far into Human territory, but unfortunately foolishness was one trait that youkai did not lack in.

As everyone took their places, Rumia stole a glance at the guards. She had never paid them much mind before in trips past, but after what Miss Mokou had said, she was curious.

There was two of them, as always. They looked older than most of the grown-ups that Rumia knew, even older than Miss Haruna. What good they would do if something came at them, she didn't have the slightest idea. However, they didn't seem to mind being there at least.

In addition to the guards, three of the grown-ups were going with them as well. Miss Satoko was in the lead as always. She wasn't as old as Ms. Haruna, but she was still pretty old, with her greying hair tied up in a neat bun tied with a pair of sticks and a well-wrinkled face. She was wearing a red blouse, a black skirt, and had a bamboo kasa on her head.

Walking with her was a man wearing well-worn grey jeans and a white shirt, with a religious symbol hanging from a necklace beneath his shirt. He was Mr. Joshua Stump, the only grown man working at the orphanage. But that wasn't the only thing that set him apart.

Mr. Joshua was an Outsider, someone who had not been born in Gensokyo but had ended up trapped after wandering in by accident. He certainly looked pretty weird. Apparently the average adult height outside of the Hakurei Barrier was a bit taller than most Genokyians, but Mr. Joshua was short even by local standards, in that Rumia's eyes were often level with his chin. And his last name was very appropriate, as he looked like a tree stump, with skin so dark that it looked like he had been burnt and thick, gnarled muscle that spoke of a life of physical labor. Apparently he had worked as a construction worker, but didn't like talking about his past much beyond that. His big black beard was thick and curly, while his eyes were bright brown.

All in all, Mr. Joshua was not exactly what one would call attractive, but Rumia still liked him a lot. He was incredibly nice and fun to play with, and seemed to have limitless tolerance for their jokes. Okay, so his religion was really weird, but that was fine, and he had plenty of great stories. Most of the time he worked as the orphanage's handyman, repairing anything that needed fixing and improving anything that he could. All things considered, Rumia and the rest kept him very busy.

Next to him was a pretty young woman with a cheery round face, bright blue eyes, and short, curly pink hair. She was wearing a sky-blue robe faded in places to resemble clouds and a wide-brimmed bonnet tied with a pink ribbon. She was Ms. Haruhi Kijoko, who split her time conducting lessons, supervising playtime, and trying to keep the place clean.

Ms. Haruhi had actually grown up in the orphanage, and had opted to stay and help once she had come of age. That just seemed weird to Rumia. She had been free to go wherever she wanted, and she just decided to stay? Forever? Granted, Rumia didn't have anything against the place; after all, it was the only home she had ever known. But there was a whole world out there. Why wouldn't anyone want to go see it.

All told, none of them looked especially intimidating. Ms. Satoko was tough, yes, but not especially scary. Ms. Haruhi could be grouchy and stubborn when someone really got on her nerves, but that wouldn't deter any possible attackers. And sure, Mr. Joshua was strong, but Rumia honestly couldn't picture him actually fighting anyone.

Then she glanced over to Miss Mokou, who was trailing the group with her hands stuck into the pockets of her baggy red suspenders. Now there was someone who was appropriately scary. Ms. Mokou wasn't particularly big or muscly, but there was always something about her that felt, well, dangerous. She had a sort of faraway look in her eyes, like she wasn't really paying attention to anything going on around her, but Rumia knew better. Mokou was keeping track of everything around them. If she had a reason to suspect that something was up, then nothing got past her.

Rumia remembered a time a few months after she, Kohta, and Keine had found Mokou's badly hurt body in the snow and dragged her back to the house. They had come across her one warm spring afternoon reclining against a tree with her eyes closed, apparently fast asleep. A whispered conversation had followed, a wooden bucket retrieved and filled with water, which was then stealthily taken over to the napping Miss Mokou.

They got as far as lifting it up over her head when she, without moving or even opening her eyes, had murmured, "Don't even think about it."

That had raised many questions. Had she really been asleep at all? Was she aware of them the whole time and simply let them get as far as they had just to pull the rug out from under them?

Regardless, they had figured that since they had gotten that far, they might as well go through with it and dump the water anyway. That day had ended with Miss Mokou heading back to the house with a smug look on her face, three bewildered children tucked under her arms, and not a single wet hair on her head.

They still had no idea how she had done it.

But while Rumia certainly felt safer with Miss Mokou around than with the decrepit guards, she was very curious as to why the cook was going along in the first place. Miss Mokou never went to market with the rest of them. Hell, Rumia couldn't remember her ever even leaving the orphanage since she had shown up.

So she decided to ask her.

Rumia hung back a bit until the rest of the girl's line has passed her up and Miss Mokou was next to her. "So," Rumia said. "Why're you coming along?"

Miss Mokou looked amused. "Why? Worried I'll bust whatever little heist you're planning today?"

"Nah, no plans like that today," Rumia said. "Too many people. But even so, you never go to market. Why today?"

Miss Mokou shrugged. "Had a bad feeling. Figured someone might try something today, so might as well be there to put a stop to it."

"Is that so."

"Yup."

"Uh, what someone, exactly?"

"Dunno," Miss Mokou said. "They haven't done it yet." She then gave the back of Rumia's shoulders a gentle shove. "Now stop lagging."

Sighing, Rumia hurried back to her place in front of Keine and next to Kohta.

In times past, they would go to the big market inside of the Human Village. In times past, they would have at least six guards show up to escort them, and they tended to be young and tough looking. But for some reason, they had stopped letting the orphans in, so they had to go to the smaller general market that was more-or-less in the center of the Human lands. It was there that people from the smaller towns, villages, and hamlets would go to buy and sell. No one had really explained why that had changed or why the quality of guards had dropped. There had just been a few months without any market trips, and when they started up again it was at a different market.

A lot of the other kids had been disappointed. Haruko especially had thrown a fit. Apparently she had had her eye on a crystal comb in the shape of a multi-colored butterfly that she had been saving up for that she now would never get to buy. Rumia, however, had actually liked the change. Sure, the trinkets sold there weren't as pretty and everything seemed second-rate in comparison, but it was filled with folks who lived out in the rougher parts of Gensokyo, places that were closer to the wild magic. As such, things were a whole lot weirder.

The market was set up as sort of a long road bordered by makeshift wooden frames draped with cloths, furs, or leather, forming two rows of tents. And along the tents were several stalls set up by anyone who did most of their business there, while those who didn't have enough merchandise to justify a stall wandered around with full bags or loaded backs. Food stalls sold freshly harvested vegetables, caught fish, slaughtered meats, bags of rice, baked bread, sweet treats, or fully cooked meals. Some stalls sold clothing, some sold tools, others sold raw materials such as lumber or glass or brick. There were even a few that specialized in things other than the essentials, though those were in the minority.

Kohta nudged Rumia and Keine and pointed. One stall was dedicated to hand-carved wooden toys. They were rougher than the kind found within the village market and were unpainted, but that didn't make them any less cool.

And one in particular had drawn their attention the last time they were there, that of a big, fat animal with big flapping ears, a tiny little tail, a stupidly long nose, and two big horns coming out of its mouth.

Back at the orphanage, there was a worn picture book called Roy's Big Top Mystery. Apparently it had come from the outside world, and it took place in a very weird looking type of festival that they had outside of the Hakurei Barrier called a "circus." Rumia and her friends had always been entranced by the images of colorful tents, flashing games, gaudily dressed performers, and exotic animals, the likes of which weren't seen in Gensokyo.

One in particular was called an "elephant." Rumia had half-expected it to just be a tale, a mythical beast added to the book to give it a bit of flavor. However, Mr. Joshua had confirmed that elephants were very much real.

That had been an eye-opener. Rumia had been told by Mr. Joshua and Melissa Garcia that magic was in very short supply in the Outside World, and that people there would consider Gensokyo to be a mythical land full of wonders. But the Outside World had elephants! What fairies compared to that?

At any rate, over the last year or so she and her friends had been working on a personal project: make a circus of their own. They had built tents from sticks and paper decorated with wildflowers and filled it with people made from the same materials. None of it ever looked particularly realistic, but screw it, it was good enough for them. Still, having a genuine elephant would definitely bring the whole thing together.

She turned toward Kohta and Keine. "Okay," she said. "Got yours?"

Kohta nodded and pulled out a bag of coins out of his pocket. Keine took out one of her own. Rumia took out hers. Spending money was hard to come by in the orphanage, but between the three of them they had managed to pull together enough to get their little circus its own elephant.

Rumia carefully counted out the collected coins. Then she hurried over to the stall.

The toy merchant was leaning back on his stool and smoking a long-stemmed pipe with his eyes closed. Rumia stoop on her tiptoes to peer over the stall. "Um, excuse me!" she said, waving her hand back and forth. "Hello!"

The merchant opened his eyes. Then when he saw who had interrupted his rest his brow deepened into a scowl.

"What?"

Rumia dumped the coins onto the counter. "We'll take the big fat guy!" she said, pointing at the elephant.

The merchant looked at her, then to the small pile of coins, and then at the wooden animal. "Where did you get this money?" he said.

"Does it matter?" Rumia said, and a little indignantly at that. Sure, the three of them could be a little grabby with things that technically did not belong to them, but they had earned their savings the honest way. Specifically, through a collection of odd jobs and errands done for the caretakers, and as someone who was principally opposed to that level of degradation, Rumia felt that they had earned every last bit. "Money's money!"

The merchant pushed the coins around with his finger. Then he shrugged. "Sorry kid. This ain't enough."

"What?" Kohta said. "Wait, the last time we were here you said it cost four thousand five hundred yen! And we have four thousand five hundred yen!"

"That was then," the merchant said as he leaned back again. "This is now. Price went up to seven thousand yen!"

"Wha-No it didn't!" Rumia sputtered. "You're just saying that because you don't like us!"

The merchant used his palm to swipe their hard-earned coins off the counter and onto the ground. "Beat it, youkai-tainted."

Next to Rumia, Keine went stiff.

"What," Rumia said, "did you call us?"

"I said beat it! Don't make me call the market guards."

Rumia opened her mouth to fully earn getting dragged away, but then Keine grabbed her by the arm. "Let's just go," Keine whispered.

Kohta's clenched fist was shaking. "Are you just gonna let this-"

"Kohta!" Keine hissed. "It's not worth it. Let's go!"

"You heard your friend," the merchant said, shooing them away. "Get lost."

To be perfectly frank, Rumia would rather get dragged away and kicked out of the market for good than to willingly submit and retreat with her tail tucked between her legs. The thought of that kind of humiliation was almost too much to bear.

But while she was perfectly fine with getting into trouble for the sake of her pride, causing a commotion would draw too much attention to them, to Keine.

And they weren't about to risk blowing her secret.

Though her face was burning so hot that steam had to be coming out of her ears, Rumia bit back the torrent of verbal abuse she wished to unleash. So she just knelt down and started to pick up the fallen coins out of the dirt. Kohta and Keine helped her get them back into the bag, and the three of them walked away.

It wasn't until they were fully out of the merchant's earshot that Kohta muttered, "That sucked."

"No shit," Rumia responded.

"Do you think he, uh, knows?"

Rumia glanced at Keine, who was staring down at the ground. "No. I think this is what Miss Mokou was talking about. You know, about idiots?"

"Why though? What'd we ever do to them?"

"Who knows? They're stupid. Stupid people don't need a reason to be stupid."

"Well, I think it's obvious!"

The three of them stopped. Then their faces twisted into scowls of annoyance and they all turned.

Their mortal enemies were there. Haruko was smirking at them with her arms folded, Hayate standing to her left with one hand on her hip and Eiko snickering at her right.

"We saw what happened," Haruko said. "And you know what? I get it. That guy didn't want you driving off all his customers with your ugly faces!"

"Piss of, Haruko," Rumia snapped. As a retort, it fell short of her normal standards, but she was in a bad mood.

"Hey, hey, hey, chill out!" Eiko said. "Don't get mad just because the people here have standards!"

"Then why are you still here?" Kohta said. "I mean, anyone that knows better would've tossed your ugly asses out from the start!"

"Hmph." Haruko gave her auburn hair a flick. "That's obvious too. They know class when they see it."

"Then prove it!" Rumia said. "You try to buy something!"

"I will!" Haruko said in a haughty tone. "As a matter of fact, there's something I've had my eye on for a while! Just watch."

The three of them sauntered off to a nearby cosmetics stall, one that sold things like ribbons to perfumes to really shiny makeup.

"Um, Rumia?" Keine said. "How is this going to prove anything?"

"Just watch," Rumia said.

"But what if it's just that guy? I mean, the other stalls probably aren't like him too."

Rumia didn't say anything. She just waited.

Much like Rumia had done earlier at the toy stall, Haruko waved her hand to get the attention of the proprietors, this one a gaudily dressed woman wearing more ribbons that she probably had on display.

As Rumia watched, Haruko pointed to a long ribbon of white silk. She pulled a handful of notes out of her pocket and offered them to the woman.

The woman looked at her, at the comb, and then Haruko. Then she rolled her eyes and said something that looked biting.

Rumia couldn't help but smirk as Haruko stiffened in shock. Then she and her friends began arguing. Though the actual words were hard to make out over the babble of the market, Rumia was able to catch the words, "Stupid fat cow!" and, "Go and boil your head!"

The next moment, a large man seemed to appear out of nowhere. He placed himself between

"Um, excuse…us. What is happening at this place?"

It was two more girls from the orphanage, specifically Melissa Garcia and Kana Anaberal. Melissa was the only child there that hadn't been born in Gensokyo, but instead had originally come from the Outside World and had gotten stuck in Gensokyo. As she had no other place left to go, the orphanage had taken her in. And because she hadn't been born in Gensokyo, she looked…weird. Despite being only a year older than Rumia and her friends, she was a full head taller, with eyes that were big and round and skin was almost as dark as Mr. Joshua's. Plus, she didn't speak a lick of Japanese when she had first arrived. She did okay now, but talking to people still took some effort.

Next to her was the closest Melissa had to a best friend, a small, pale girl with long and curly blonde hair. Kana Anaberal was, to put it bluntly, a weirdo. She always seemed to be in a different place than everyone else, staring at things that weren't there and talking about things that had nothing to do with anything that was going on. Rumia didn't dislike her exactly, but just talking to her was a mentally taxing experience.

"The…the store people will not speak to us," Melissa said. "They say…go away. They not…they do not let us buy."

"Perhaps it is the fairy dust," Kana said without looking at anyone in particular.

"Yeah, same with us," Kohta said. "Looks like they don't-Wait. Hold on. What fairy dust?"

In answer, Kana held up both palms, which were covering with tiny sparkling grains of something, like glass sand. "This. Maybe they are allergic?"

"Uh…" Rumia and her friends all glanced at one another. "Why are you hands covered with fairy dust?"

"To help me fly! We start flying lessons soon, do we not?"

"Er, well, yeah," Keine said. "But I don't think fairy dust will help."

"Oh, I think it will."

"Where did you even get that?" Rumia said. "You're not tearing off fairy wings, aren't you?"

"From the kitchen," Kana said. "They have lots!"

"What?"

"It is not fairy, uh, dust," Melissa said in exasperation. "It is just sugar."

"Sugar is fairy dust," Kana said. "Same thing, really."

"No," Rumia said.

"Yes," Kana said. She smiled.

"Um, all right," Rumia said, blinking. "Sure. Why not?" She then looked back to Melissa. "And we don't know. They did the same to us and to Haruko and her friends. I guess they don't like us here."

Melissa sighed. "That is…shame. I was hoping to try magic box, but they will not let me even look at it!"

"Magic…box?"

Melissa pointed at a stall that offered items of a more mystical persuasion. Most of it seemed to be practical stuff like charms, wards, and blank spellcards, but they also had a handful of more exotic wares, like that silver wand encased in glass or that egg-shaped thing that glimmered with a myriad of different colors.

As for the box in question, it was a green chest the size of a woman's jewelry box encased with bronze that sat upon the counter.

"Well, they probably have a point," Rumia said dubiously. "I mean, it's probably cursed."

Melissa frowned. "Then why is just out there like that?"

"Maybe it's a small curse? Like, the kind that just causes minor annoyances, like your foot gets a bitch of an itch on every other week or everything you eat tastes like it's been left out overnight?"

Then they heard a sharp cackle. Standing nearby in the alley formed by two tents was an old, old woman, withered and hunched over. Most of her features were shrouded in a heavy black cloak, and she walked with the support of a gnarled cane.

"Is it magic you're seeking, my little sweets?" the cloaked woman said. "Well, today is a most fortuitous day, for I have all the magic you could ever want!"

…

Something was off, and unfortunately Satoko knew exactly what it was.

As she stood off to the side to keep an eye on the children, she saw how they were being treated. In visits past, everyone had been more than happy to see them. The stallkeepers had enjoyed putting on a show for the children, offering silly discounts and the occasional free sample or sweet offering. Storytellers had regaled them with tales, while small-time magicians had shown off their tricks.

No longer. Now they were being turned away one right after the other. Satoko watched the merchants get gruff and unfriendly when they saw her kids in their grey uniforms. She saw the furrowed brows and whispers going on. She saw it all.

And the sad part was that this wasn't the first time this had happened. It had been the same at the Human Village, in the weeks leading up to their eventual banning from entering.

Satoko wanted to go right up to those merchants and give them a piece of her mind. In fact, she had done just that the first time around. It hadn't helped, and had only sped up their banishment, but someone had to say something.

However, now she knew better. Going after the locals would only be attacking the symptoms. She needed to go right after the cause.

She still had some friends in the Human Village. Not many, but they slipped her news of the comings and goings. And they had let her know that a certain someone was going to be making a rare trip outside the walls to this particular market today. He didn't do that often, so she had made sure to schedule the orphanage's trip for today.

Satoko let her eyes unfocus and drift over the crowd, not zeroing in on anyone in particular while taking note of anything that stood out.

Then she saw him.

Across the sea of stalls, wares, and faces, a short man with dark, curling hair and a protruding belly was walking around the stalls that specialized in sweets and snacks, eyeing the merchandise without ever actually buying anything. Not that he needed to, as one of the bakers had already given him a large honeycake to munch on for free. He was dressed in a dark blue robe and had on a tall, white hat trimmed with gold lace, one that was specifically tailored to hide the ever-increasing bald spot on the top of his head. Accompanying him were four guards who were considerably younger and more fit than the ones who had shown up to escort the children.

Satoko pursed her lips. Then she walked over to Mokou.

For her part, Mokou was staying in the shadows of one of the tents, out of sight. By the look of things she had also noticed how everything seemed off, and was probably thinking of doing something about it.

"Hey," she said as Satoko approached. "Things usually this, ah, tense?"

Satoko shook her head. "It's been getting worse, but no. This is new."

"Want me to do something about it?"

"Not unless someone actually threatens the kids. We might have to leave early regardless. However, I might just have enough time to see to the root cause." Satoko pointed.

Mokou peered over the heads of the crowd to see what she was pointing at. "Ah. Got it." She smiled. "Well, go and kick his ass. I'll keep an eye on things."

Nodding her thanks, Satoko headed off to take care of business.

If she was spotted approaching, no doubt the entire entourage would make a hasty exit. So she ducked away from the main market lane and snuck behind the tents and stalls. No one paid her much heed as she hurried along, her head and shoulders bowed low.

Sure enough, when she did step back onto the main lane, her target had his back to her. He was speaking with a man and a woman that looked like they were farmers, no doubt to "hear" their concerns about something or another and offer up pretty words of sympathy and empty promises. What was more, his guards were mostly paying attention to the couple, and had not seen her yet.

Good.

The short man patted the taller farmer on the shoulder and said something. The two farmers bowed low and started to walk away, still nibbling on his cake

Seeing her chance, Satoko strode forward and called out, "Master Sonozika!"

Master Gendou Sonozika, the Leader of the Human Village and, by extension, the rest of Gensokyo's Human population, instinctively turned toward her. When he saw who it was, his doughy face, already shining with sweat, turned pale, and the cake fell out of his hands. He started to turn away to bustle out of sight.

Oh, no he didn't.

"Master Sonozika, wait!" Satoko called as she quickened her pace. Immediately Gendou Sonozika's guards placed themselves between him and her, hands on the hilts of their swords.

However, Satoko was not to be deterred so easily. "Master Sonozika, I have been trying to gain an audience with you for months!" she called over the large men's shoulders. "You're not going to duck me any further!"

"I'm busy!" he shouted over his shoulder. "I'm a very busy man, so you can just wait your turn like everyone-"

"You coward!" Satoko shouted.

The general hubbub of the market had lowered when Satoko had first started shouting. This killed the rest entirely, as everyone, purveyor and purchaser alike, all turned to stare at the drama unfolding. Those who knew who Satoko was and why she was directly calling out the Human Leader in public were as entranced as the children were with the storyteller's tale at the other end of the market, while those who didn't were watching with both confusion and interest, eager to see what the fuss was all about.

As for Master Sonozika, he froze in mid-step. He was a lot of things, but thick-skinned was not one of them. Satoko knew enough about him through their increasingly infrequent dealings to know how much he hated being embarrassed, especially in front of everyone.

Sure enough, when he slowly turned toward her, his sweaty and pasty face had now turned bright red with indignation.

"Excuse me?" he said.

"You heard me!" Satoko called back. "Are you really so scared of an aging woman trying to take care of a bunch of parentless children that you won't even hear her out?"

The shade of Gendou's face darkened, and he looked about ready to order her to be carried off. But then he glanced at what was happening around him.

The onlookers were starting to whisper amongst themselves, and Satoko found that she was able to tell who was from the Human Village and who dwelt in one of the smaller settlements. By and large, those who hailed from the species' capital looked annoyed by the insult. How dare she, they were no doubt thinking. How dare she openly insult the Leader like that? She knew well why he was refusing to speak with her. She had his answer, she knew why, so she ought to just accept it with grace!

But those who lived outside of the Human Village's walls were of a different sort of mind. She saw several disapproving glances and scowls directed toward Master Sonozika as well. The last few years had brought along several changes to how the Humans interacted with their neighbors, and not all were in agreement. It was a little ironic, in that those who were most frequently at the mercy of Gensokyo's wild denizens and thus were susceptible to various superstitions were actually less controlled by the fear of them. Sure, many of them could get on board with the strict anti-youkai rhetoric Master Sonozika often spouted. Even Satoko had found herself hard pressed to disagree, considering that her life was devoted to protecting the victims of youkai attacks. But what many of them could never understand is why that rhetoric extended to those victims.

Regardless, the challenge had been thrown down, and now everyone was watching. Gendou's guards could stop Satoko from physically reaching him, but there was no blocking her words.

Gendou bristled, but he managed to refrain from lashing out. "Fine," he growled. "But not here." He pointed toward a nearby tent. "There."

He stomped toward the tent, and thankfully the guards moved to let Satoko through. Sighing with nervous relief, she hurried after him, with the guards taking position outside the entrance.

Inside the tent several middle-aged men were sitting in a circle, playing a game that involved tossing several multi-colored clumps of herbs into a fire and taking bets on which color the resulting puff of smoke would take. They looked up in irritation as Master Sonozika and Satoko entered.

"Hey, this is a private-" one of them started to say, but then the words caught in his throat when he recognized the intruder. "Oh. Uh, M-Master Sonozika! This is an-"

"Out!" Master Sonozika barked.

He didn't need to tell them twice. The group hastily obeyed, taking their herbs and money with them but leaving the fire. Master Sonozika sighed and extended his hand toward the flame. A bubble of condensed vacuum shot from his fingers to envelop the fire, swallowing all of the oxygen and snuffing it out. It then filled with the resulting cloud of smoke and rose up through the hole in the ceiling, leaving nothing but smoldering embers.

"All right, woman," Master Sonozika growled as he sat down across from the fire's remains. "You have your audience, waste of time though it may be. Say your piece so we can both go back to where we belong."

Satoko was a very patient and very tolerant woman. One didn't devote one's life to looking after so many children without building up a healthy reserve of both. But there were certain attitudes for which she had neither. "You haven't even heard what I want to say," she said.

"Why should I?" Master Sonozika demanded. "I already know what it is. You want permission to move your entire orphanage inside the Human Village's walls. And I already told you that we simply do not have-"

"You've expanded the Village's borders twice in the last five years," Satoko interrupted. "Twice! And I happen to know for a fact that the Human Village's population growth isn't anywhere near large enough to justify all that space."

"It's not just space, and do not interrupt me again if you want this conversation to continue," Master Sonozika warned. "It's also a matter of resources. If I recall, you're looking after, what, nineteen of them?"

"Eighteen," Satoko corrected.

"Eighteen then. Plus you, plus your…associates. That's over twenty bodies, over twenty hungry mouths, all thrown into our community all at once!"

Satoko sighed. "I'm not asking you to feed them," she said, though yes, that would have been appreciated. "We get by on our own, and can keep doing so. I'm just asking that you allow us the protection that literally everyone else gets. These children are the only ones that aren't allowed in! Why? We'd been talking for years about moving the orphanage into the Village, but all of a sudden you just shut that down, refuse to let them even come in to visit, and won't even see me to tell me why!"

Master Sonozika's sagging jowls clenched up. "Do not presume to speak to me in such-"

"It was your idea! You were the one to suggested bringing the Children's Home into the Village, remember? You told me that it was your responsibility to look after all Humans, especially youkai victims! What changed, Gendou? What changed?"

To this, Master Sonozika said nothing. He just glared.

"It was that man, isn't it?" Satoko said.

There was a pause, and then Gendou said, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I knew it," Satoko sighed. "Ever since he showed up with his angry ideas and angry religion-"

"The Human Village opens its arms to all faiths!" Master Sonozika said. "Even the strange ones from the Outside!"

"So do I! One of them works at the orphanage, and you won't find a kinder, more gentle soul! But the version spoken of by that man Skinner, all this talk of curses and taints and judgments, how can that be good?"

"Nathaniel Skinner has been nothing but a boon to the Human Village," Master Sonozika said primly. "We may not share the same, ah, theologies, but I trust his judgment."

"His judgment? That children that have lost their families to youkai attacks are somehow cursed? That letting them in the Village will spread this supposed curse?"

"Youkai are wily beasts," Master Sonozika said in a prim tone. "You ought to know, you practically live among them."

Satoko nearly snapped at him about how not all youkai were malicious monsters, that many were at worse just playful and mischievous, that many were in fact quite benevolent, but she didn't. What good would it do to someone as pigheaded as Gendou Sonozika? "And one would think that someone who-" she stopped herself half-a-second before the word fear slipped from her tongue, "mistrusts youkai as you would be more sympathetic to their victims," she said instead. "Most of these children lost their families to youkai attacks. You ought to be protecting them, to be sheltering them, not casting them out! How can you claim to protect Humans from the threat of youkai if you won't lift a finger to help their most obvious victims?"

Anger flared up in Gendou Sonozika's beady little eyes. "By reminding myself that I am responsible for Humanity as a whole, and not just a small handful. Sometimes, a limb must be lopped off to prevent the spread of infection. It is regrettable, yes, but I serve the greater good, and in service of that good, sometimes sacrifices must be made."

Satoko Yume was not a violent person. Oh, she was not afraid to fight when provoked, and few things were more provoking than threatening the safety of her kids, but she was not given to violent urges. But she had never wanted to ball her fingers into a fist and thrust that first into the infuriating face of another Human more than she did at that moment in time.

She didn't, though less out of principle and more out of the knowledge that doing so would only make things worse for her and her family. So instead, she yanked back on all of that anger, keeping it from bursting out, and reformed it, molding it from a red-hot explosion of fury into something sharper, something more focused, turning the flame into venom.

"It has been my experience," Satoko said, lacing every syllable with that venom. "That those who speak of the necessity of making sacrifices never think to include themselves as possible sacrifices. Only others."

"Satoko, do not-"

"And what if it was your family, your children, that was afflicted with this curse, this taint? Would you be so quick to sacrifice them as well?"

Gendou Sonozika abruptly stood up. "Enough," he growled.

Satoko was on her feet as well, but a moment later she realized that one word was more than just a command, it was a signal to the guards waiting outside, because moments later she felt thick, strong hands wrap themselves around her slender biceps.

Still, she didn't break gaze with the Human Leader, and though it was childish, she did take some small petty pleasure over how much he had to incline his head to meet her gaze.

"This conversation," he seethed through clenched teeth, "is over. The answer is no, and it's always going to be no. Do not waste my time again."

A few seconds ticked by, and then Satoko bowed her head. "Of course," she said. "My…apologies." She stared at the smear of honey still on his upper lip. "I can, of course, see how valuable your time is."

…

"Look at this, my sweet little thing," the shrouded woman cooed. From within her cloak she withdrew some kind of charm. It was made of strange bones and shells, all hanging from strings from a silver framework. In its center was what looked like a shrunk-down Human skull, one the size of a pebble. "The secret to eternal life."

Rumia quirked an eyebrow. The charm did look pretty cool, but that was quite the claim. She glanced over to Kohta, who looked just as incredulous as she was, and then to Keine, who seemed a little more interested.

Kana, however, was absolutely fascinated. "Oh, is that so?" she said. "Fascinating!"

"Ah, it is, isn't it?" The shrouded woman's hand gently ran over the tiny skull, caressing its smooth dome. "And it provides what all mortals secretly long for. Life after death, for as long as you like."

"Wait, hold up," Kohta said. "You just said that this thing'll give us eternal life. Now you're saying that we'll dies anyway?"

The shrouded woman shrugged. "What is death, but a natural transition from one state of being to another? When our bodies expire, our souls depart for the River Suzune to be taken to be judged. But what if they didn't? What if, after leaving our bodies, we could stay? Thinks about it. You'd never have to leave your friends, never have to worry about getting sick or growing old. You would get to be good little girls and good little boys. Forever."

"As ghosts," Rumia said flatly.

Melissa shot her a confused look. "I am…sorry. I do not know this word. What is…ghosts?"

"Really, Melissa? Out of all the words…" Rumia sighed. "Um, ghosts. You know, souls of dead people walking around." She wiggled her fingers in the air. "Ooooooooooo!"

Melissa's eyes widened. "Oh! El fantasma! These are…" Her face scrunched up as she mentally searched for the right word. "These are real here?"

Kohta rolled his eyes.

"Real?" For a second the shrouded lady dropped her weird, singsong way of talking and just sounded confused. "Of course they're real. My grandma used to have to clear the damned things out of her cellar all the time. Why wouldn't they be real?"

"For shit's sake," Kohta muttered.

"She's…from the Outside World," Rumia told her. "I guess they don't have ghosts there."

"We…We do!" Melissa said, albeit a bit defensively. "But mostly in, um, what is the word, stories, right?"

"Right."

"Yes, in stories! I have never seen them though."

"Yeah, well, you're lucky then. Seriously though, who would want to be a ghost? They just wander around annoying people. Which, okay, would be fun for like a week, but after that…"

"Oh, I don't know," Kana mused. "It seems like a fine time!

"Ah! But you see, that this the genius of this little beauty." The woman tapped her finger against the charm, making the bones knock against each other. "For most ghosts are merely wicked spirits that refused to cross the River Suzune and thus degraded, losing all sense of who and what they were. Who would want to go on such a state?"

"Not all of them," Keine said. "Poltergeists don't."

"Polter-what?" Melissa said.

"Keine, seriously?" Kohta said.

"You understand!" The shrouded lady jabbed a finger at Keine and cackled. "Yes, poltergeists keep their shape, their names, and their memories. But they are mere shades, copies of those who have passed! The souls have still passed on." She lovingly pressed the charm against her cheek and sighed. "But with this…with this, you need not fear this at all! With this enchantment, a poltergeist will still be created from your death, yes, but it will contain your soul! The two will remain one forever and ever, and you will never-"

"-ever come near these kids again if you know what's good for you," growled Miss Mokou as she seized the shrouded lady by the back of her cloak and lifted her high into the air with one hand. "Because if you do, you're gonna find out just how well that little bauble of yours works. And given the quality of most of the crap around here, I don't think that's a die you wanna throw. Got it?"

Rumia, Kohta, and Keine all blanched. Where in the hell had she come from? One moment it had just been them, and the next Miss Mokou was simply there, filling the space behind the cloaked woman.

Then Rumia noticed something else out of place. While the woman had first approached them at the opening of the alley, they were now almost all the way down its length. She had been leading them away from the market as they talked, and they hadn't even noticed. As someone who prided herself in the fine art of trickery, Rumia was both impressed and deeply freaked out.

Judging by the panicked look on the cloaked woman's face, it was clear that she was just as taken by surprise as they all were. "Let me go!" she squealed as she futilely swung her hands about. "Let me go or I swear-"

Then she caught sight of Miss Mokou's face. "You!" she gasped.

Miss Mokou's eyes flashed. And by that, she didn't just get even more angry. No, they literally flashed, sparks shooting through her maroon corneas like a stone striking flint. "Good, you recognize me," she said as she gripped the cloaked woman's face with her other hand, squeezing the cheeks and holding her jaw shut. "Then you probably know the sort of things I'm good at. So I'm gonna give you this one warning: you run off now and never, ever come near any of these kids again, or you get to find out firsthand how true the stories are. Understand?"

The cloaked woman quickly nodded.

Miss Mokou released just a little pressure on her face. "I want to hear you say it."

"I understand!" the cloaked woman squeaked. "I'll leave them alone, I swear!"

"Good." Then Miss Mokou hurled her all the way down the alley. "Now get!"

The cloaked woman hastily gathered herself up and scampered away. Also, she had suddenly lost the hunch in her back and the need for her cane.

Rumia was struck speechless. She knew that that Miss Mokou had a nasty past. She knew that she was probably a scary person. But she had never thought that she was that scary.

The others were just as stunned. And terrified.

Miss Mokou was panting heavily. Not from exertion though. Rather, she seemed to be working very hard to pull something back, as if just scaring that woman had almost let something out, something she had been straining to conceal this whole time.

Rumia exchanged uncomfortable looks with Kohta. Melissa was literally shaking in her shoes. Even Kana, who never seemed to be on the same page as anyone, was cowering behind Kohta.

As for Keine, she nervously cleared her throat and ventured with, "Uh, M-Miss Mokou…"

Miss Mokou held up a palm, stopping her. She straightened up and squeezed her eyes shut. Every muscle in her body went tense.

Rumia involuntarily braced herself.

But then Miss Mokou relaxed. She let out the breath she had been holding in a long, belabored sigh. She didn't open her eyes though. "Okay," she said, her voice calm but incredibly scary. "Now, whose dumbass idea was it to separate from the rest of the group and go off with the creepy old lady and potentially end the day baked into a pie crust?"

Rumia reflexively started to raise her hand, as did Kohta and Keine. But Kana suddenly stepped forward. "It was me," she admitted.

Rumia stared at her in surprise, and she wasn't the only one. Even Miss Mokou seemed taken back by Kana's sudden bout of lunacy.

"She said she knew how to make someone live forever," Kana said. "And, well, with all the things I've been hearing about how the youkai have us marked, I thought…" She scuffed the ground with her shoe. "Well, I thought…"

All of the anger went out of Miss Mokou's face. "Oh, for the love of-" Then she sighed and knelt down in front of Kana. Placing a hand on the blonde girl's shoulder, Miss Mokou said, "Look, Kana. You're going to hear people say a lot of things, and most of it is totally stupid. I've heard people talk too, about how just because youkai got your families it means that you are somehow tainted. And guess what? It's all bullshit, a dumb story made up by dumb people. There are dangerous youkai out there, yes, but they're not after any of you more than anyone else. Even the meanest, nastiest ones are just looking for an easy meal, and they won't bother you if you stay where it's safe."

Kana looked less than reassured. "Okay. But-"

"Also, if someone starts talking to you about living forever, that's a sure sign that they're full of crap," Miss Mokou continued. "Ninety-nine percent of the time it's just some obvious scam that ends up getting some overconfident fool killed anyway while the person who sold it to them runs away laughing. And even in the one percent of times that it's legit…" The muscles in Miss Mokou's jaw tightened. "Well. Living forever isn't like the stories made it out to be."

"But dying is worse!" Kana blurted out. "You can be the best person ever, you can take care of yourself and do everything healthy, but you still die, and then everyone you love is left alone! How is that fair?"

Miss Mokou sighed. "It ain't. None of it is. But neither is being the one left alone after everyone you love is gone." She took Kana by the hand. "Come on, kids. Forget this nonsense about living forever, and for the love of all that is sane, if you're worried about dying, then don't follow creepy freaks into alleys! That's like one of the first rules about self-preservation, which is something you all could stand to have a little more of."

…

Joshua Stump looked at the list in his hand. Haruhi was taking care of food, Mokou was supposed to be handling the fabrics, so he had been given responsibility of the odds and ends.

And there were quite a few. They needed nails, paint, more lumber, as well as cigarettes for Mokou. He couldn't stand the smell of the things and didn't know why she liked them so much, but that was her business, and as far as he was concerned she had earned the right to her vices.

As Joshua wandered the stalls, he took a turn that brought him through a sort of alleyway between two tents. And as he did, he found himself running into the principle reason for his dislike of tobacco.

He smelled him before he saw him, the thick, cloying scent of cigar smoke mixed with the sickly sweet stench of patchoulis, with just a hint of sweat. It was a bizarre mixture, and not in the slightest bit pleasant.

Joshua winced. He knew that he ought not shun another brother in Christ, especially considering how few of them there were in Gensokyo, but there was something about Nathaniel Skinner that made him profoundly uncomfortable.

Then a heavy hand sheathed in a thick leather glove clapped him on the shoulder. "Ah, brother Joshua!" Skinner said in his deep, smooth voice. "I was hoping to see you here."

Sighing, Joshua turned around.

Nathaniel Skinner was, like Joshua, an Outsider, someone who had been born outside of Gensokyo only to later wander in and become stuck. He was a white man from America apparently, one that would have been considered noticeably tall back home, but here, where the average height was several centimeters shorter, he towered over everyone. He had a thick, golden beard; a ruddy complexion; and piercing blue eyes that he had recently taken to shrouding with a pair of round-lensed sunglasses. As always, he was wearing a long, brown trench coat; brown gloves, a brown hat with a wide brim; thick brown boots; a white shirt; and blue jeans. Around his neck hung a large silver crucifix, though unlike Joshua's this one was not empty and a tiny Jesus hanging suspended from it, his arms outstretched and his face twisted into a cry of pure agony. One gloved hand was clutching it tightly.

"Nathaniel," Joshua said with as much warmth as he could muster.

Skinner smiled. "Brother Nathaniel," he corrected. "That is what we are, is we not?"

He moved to embrace Joshua. Joshua, who had been anticipating this, tolerated and returned the gesture.

"Of course," Joshua said. "So, what brings you here? You're not usually one to go to market."

Skinner placed his hands on his hips and sighed. "No, I'm not. Actually, I rarely leave the Human Village these days."

"So I've heard."

"Have you?" Skinner reached up with one hand and took off his sunglasses, revealing his pale blue eyes. Joshua frankly wished that he had left them on. "I imagine you've been hearing some other things as well."

Joshua shrugged. "Well, I heard you've become very close with Master Sonozika. He seems to value your opinion."

Tapping his folded-up sunglasses against his palm, Skinner glanced out through the alley at the people. "Well, yes. Gendou is…a surprisingly smart man for someone native to this…this place. Very perceptive. That's why I'm here, actually. He asked me to accompany him, to take a look at things and offer my…opinion."

"Oh? Looking to spread the good news, then?"

Skinner's brow furrowed up in puzzlement. "Pardon?"

"The good news," Joshua repeated. "Of Jesus Christ."

There was a pause, and then Skinner put his sunglasses back on. "Oh. Of course. Always." He glanced back at the crowd and sighed. "Walk with me, Brother Joshua."

The two Outsiders moved away from the bustle of the crowd. As they did, Skinner said, "Have you given any thought to my suggestions?"

Joshua sighed. "You mean, leave the orphanage, move into the Village, be part of your, um, your…"

"Church," Skinner said. "Fellowship. Brotherhood."

"Right. That."

"There are so few Christians here in this…this forsaken country. We need to stick together, you know. Safety in numbers. And strength."

Safety. Strength. Words of a threatened man. "I see."

"I've been slowly building a congregation there. Most don't want to hear the Gospel. They keep to their backwater superstitions and shut out the Word."

"Well, it's hard to blame them," Joshua said. "I mean, you call them superstitions, but when you can actually go up to one of their gods and introduce yourself…"

Skinner came to an abrupt stop.

"Their gods…" Skinner repeated in disbelief. "There is one God, Brother Joshua. Only one."

Joshua sighed. "Of course."

"These spirits of theirs, these gods and fairies and youkai…you know, there is a word for a spirits not aligned with the Father."

Maybe so, but it did seem that most of the local "demons" did more to help the orphanage than the actual Humans. Donations and other forms of support from the Human Village had been on a steep decline over the last few years. Right.

"You would do well to remember that," Skinner continued. "That's why I think you ought to join me. I worry about you, you know. You are often in my prayers."

The reverse was true as well, though Joshua doubted that Skinner's prayers for him used the same language.

"Oh?" Joshua said.

Skinner nodded. "Having someone as strong in their faith as you around would be…be helpful, yes, but you live so far out in the Wilds, out in those savage and untamed lands, with so many wicked spirits about. It's dangerous, Brother Joshua. The Human Village…" He shrugged. "Well, it's not exactly Philadelphia, but it's the best that this godforsaken place has. Out there…you never know when the demonic forces might come calling."

Right. It was time to stop beating around the bush. "Well now, as it so happens, Satoko's been pushing to move the orphanage inside the Village," Joshua said. "You know, she believes as you do, that it's just too dangerous to have all those children so far from civilization." He smiled. "Unfortunately, she hasn't had much success with that, but seeing how Master Sonozika seems to value you advice so much, perhaps you could put in a word for her?"

As predicted, Skinner was less than enthused by the suggestion. "And bring those children," he said, staring.

"Yes."

"Inside the Village."

"Uh, yes. That would be the point."

Skinner slowly shook his head. "Brother Joshua, I was referring to you specifically."

Joshua finally let some of the anger he had felt building seep into his voice and countenance. "You know I'm not going to do that, Nathaniel. I'm not leaving those children."

Skinner scowled from behind his glasses. "Your compassion for them is…well, it's admirable I suppose, but-"

"Look. Nathaniel. Let's speak plainly, all right? I know there's been talk about curses and taints and other such nonsense about those who've had any sort of dealings with youkai. I know people have started to call the kids, oh what was it, youkai-touched? And it isn't exactly much of a secret that you're at the center of it. Now, I have devoted my life to helping take care of those children in any way I can, and if you and Sonozika are bound and determined to keep them exiled out in the Wilds, then I'm staying there with them."

Skinner sucked in air through his teeth. "That is…well, it's a mite disappointing, I won't lie."

"If memory serves, Jesus was pretty specific about what He thought of those who would turn children away," Joshua pointed out.

Then Skinner's scowl darkened into outright hostility. "If memory serves, He was also pretty specific of the ultimate fate of heathens and heretics, children and adult alike! Were the children of Jericho spared? Or those of the Egyptians?"

"That's enough, Skinner," Joshua said flatly. He turned to walk away. "I'm not having this conversation anymore."

"Close your ears and your eyes all you want!" Skinner shouted. "But you're still-"

"So, hey," Mokou said as she walked up to the two men. "What's the big commotion over here?"

Joshua nearly stumbled. With her bright red suspenders and the charms tied into her hair, Mokou didn't exactly blend in, but he hadn't even heard her approach. How did she do that?

And yet here she was, hands in her pockets as she calmly surveyed the scene. Hanging back a ways behind her were five of the children, specifically Rumia Yagami, Kohta Momori, Keine Kamishirasawa, Kana Anaberal, and Melissa Garcia.

Skinner, it should be noted, nearly leapt right out of his coat when she appeared. "And who is this?" he demanded.

Joshua cleared his throat. "Um, this is Fujiwara no Mokou. Our cook."

"Your…cook. Hmmm." Skinner looked Mokou up and down. Mokou was tall for a Japanese woman, and tended to look over most crowds, but Skinner was a full head taller than even she. And yet, now that Joshua saw them standing next to one another, it didn't seem that way. "Well, that's appropriate I guess, but why is she wearing pants and a man's shirt?"

Mokou quirked an eyebrow. "Tough talk from a guy dressed like a literal pile of crap. Josh, who's this joker?

The rational part of Joshua told him to hustle Mokou away before the two came to blows, while the rest was curious to see how that would turn out. "Mokou, this is, uh, Nathaniel Skinner. He, uh, from the Human Village, and-"

"No. I am from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of the United States of America!" Skinner snapped, though he kept his focus on Mokou. "But I don't expect you to know any of that!"

Mokou shrugged. "Well, goody for you. I'm from the Fujiwara estate of the Kansai region, but I don't expect you to know any of that. So now that we know each other's names and agree that neither of us knows or cares where the other is actually from, why exactly are you bothering my friend for?"

Skinner turned to Joshua. "Is she…accustomed to intruding upon men's conversations?"

"Hey." Mokou snapped her fingers in Skinner's ear. "Jackass. I'm right here. You can talk to me directly."

Skinner shook his head. "Brother Joshua, I'm disappointed. You used to be a smart man, but now look at the kind of company you keep. I pray that God opens your eyes one of these days, before it's too late." Then, without another word, he turned and stormed off.

Joshua and Mokou watched him storm off.

"Charming fellow," Mokou wryly remarked. "Friend of yours?"

"Once," Joshua admitted.

"Oh yeah? When was that?"

"Oh, about seventeen years ago, when we first came to Gensokyo." Joshua shook his head. "I'm…sorry about that. He was always, ah, troubled, and relied on his faith for control."

"Oh yeah? How'd that work out?"

Joshua thought for a moment, and then admitted, "With mixed results."

"Sounds like the former's informing the latter now."

"I don't disagree. He didn't use to be this, ah, zealous, but ever since he came to Gensokyo, he's…changed."

"Well, if the stories I've heard are true, he's also been busy changing everyone else," Mokou said, folding her arms. "I guess he's the one to blame for all the trouble we've been having with the Human Village?"

Joshua winced. "Yes, I think so."

"Hmmm." Mokou didn't comment much past that, but the look she gave him spoke volumes. This conversation wasn't over, that much was for certain.

Then, from where they were still standing, Rumia suddenly started jumping up and down and waving her hand. "Uh, Mr. Joshua? Miss Mokou? Hello!"

The urgency in her voice drew their attention immediately. The children were all focused on something happening in the market. Rumia was jumping up and down as she waved them over.

"Uh, some of the kids just got into a fight!" she said. "And it looks crazy!"


	4. Outsiders

Outsiders

As it turned out, there was more than a simple fight going on. It was an all-out brawl, one consisting of mostly children.

A ring had been cleared in the crowd, and in it was a confusion of bodies, all of them rolling about in a flurry of blows and holds. There seemed to be around seven kids involved, three of which were wearing the grey Children's Home uniforms. Rumia identified Noba, Tomohiro, and Shinji, who were among the eldest of the children. The other four, who looked to be nearly almost men, were probably from one of the nearby villages. In the thick of it was Miss Haruhi, who was desperately trying to get them to separate while she yelled for help to no avail.

All around them several things seemed to be happening all at once. In the innermost ring of onlookers the rest of the other orphans were gathered. Chubby Keiichi was sitting with Yoshi and Hiro standing on either side, a dazed look on his face and his nose a bloody mess. Haruko, Hayate, and Eiko were frantically running about screaming at everyone to stop, while Kazuchika was holding little Akito in his arms, anxiously trying to comfort the wailing child. As for the two remaining boys, Dai and Yuuki, they weren't anywhere to be seen.

And around _them_ were the market-goers. It took Rumia less than a second to gauge that none of them were going to be any help. Some of them looked distressed, and many of them were calling out for everyone to stop fighting. But most were hanging back, unwilling to get involved, while still others were laughing, a few even shouting encouragement.

Rumia felt her cheeks grow hot. So many grown-ups around, and the only one actually doing anything was Miss Haruhi.

Well, at least they had brought Mister Joshua and Miss Mokou, who were also on the very short list of useful grown-ups. If anyone could stop this, they could.

Then several things happened in very quick succession.

First of all, despite the brawling orphans being outnumbered, three more local kids, all of them older and bigger than even Noba, pushed their way through the crowd and ran into the fray.

The second was Miss Haruhi hastily trying to put herself between the newcomers and the fighters. She held her hands out as she begged them to not join the fight.

The third was one of the newcomers contemptuously smacking her across the cheek and sending her reeling. He then grabbed Shinji by the hair, hauled him up, and punched him squarely in the face.

The fourth was caused by the third. Watching someone as nice as Miss Haruhi get roughed up like that killed any inhibitions that the rest of the orphans might have had, and the dam broke.

Haruko, Hayate, and Eiko were the closest, so they set upon the new roughnecks with reckless abandon, punching and clawing at them despite being totally outmatched. Rumia even saw Eiko trying to bite the one that had hit Miss Haruhi in the arm.

Yoshi and Hiro were next. Despite only being eight and ten years old respectively, they left Keiichi and ran in as well, kicking shins and punching groins, or attempting to at least, which got Yoshi an elbow to the nose for his effort.

Then wonder of wonders, Keiichi himself got up and tried to join the fight. He didn't make a very impressing showing of it. In fact, it mainly consisting of him getting up, waddling over to the boy still tangled up with Tomohiro, and pounding ineffectively on the boy's back with his fists. In the end, Kazuchika was the only one not joining in, and that was because he had his hands full with Akito.

Unfortunately, there was nothing stopping the rest of the locals from jumping in as well.

Rumia saw several young men make toward the fray with purposeful strides and dark looks. A few were stopped by their neighbors, but not all. It wouldn't be long before the other orphans were outnumbered.

Well, screw _that!_

Without waiting for any kind of context as to what had kicked the whole thing off, Rumia bolted forward. She pushed her way through the crowd, zeroing in on the first combatant she could find _not_ wearing a grey uniform. She didn't need to look to see if her friends were with her; she didn't need to. They simply _were._

She managed to break through the crowd into the fight circle. Then she sprinted toward a boy a few years older than herself who was wearing a green outfit and fist fighting with Shinji. She leapt right onto his back and snarled while raining down blows onto his neck.

He lurched back in surprise, allowing Shinji to catch him with a solid jab into his stomach. A moment later Kohta appeared, tackling his knee from behind and driving him down.

It was a nicely coordinated attack, but unfortunately their numbers advantage did not last, as several other bodies converged on them. A hand grabbed Rumia by the hair and pulled _hard._ She felt herself being hauled into the air, but before she was, she lunged forward one last time and snapped her teeth. Her mouth filled with the green-clad boy's ear, and he cried out in pain.

A moment later Rumia was facedown in the dust while some asshole kicked her in the ribs. She gasped in pain, and tried to turned away from the blows.

"Get away from her!" she heard Kohta yell. This was followed by the meaty sound of a punch connecting with flesh. Rumia hoped that it was his hand doing the punching.

Unfortunately, the opposite proved true, and a moment later Kohta was lying next to her. The two locked eyes for just a second, and then they grabbed one another and tried to keep each other's heads shielded as the kicking resumed in earnest.

It occurred to Rumia then that she might actually die, and not at the hands of any youkai or other kind of monster, but beaten to death by her fellow Humans. And the worst of it all was that she didn't even know why things had broken down like they did. She had just seen her family in danger, and had run to help, and now it might cost her and Kohta their lives.

That sucked.

But before they had taken more than three blows, there came another sound of knuckles slamming into flesh. Then there was a loud _crack,_ and an unfamiliar male voice cried out in pain.

A moment later the one that had done most of the kicking was simply _gone,_ though Rumia could here someone warbling in fear as…was he flying away? Or had he been thrown?

Despite having picked up several new bruises, Rumia found herself grinning. She had figured out what had happened. Oh, those assholes were in trouble now!

She eased herself onto her back, expecting to find Miss Mokou standing over them like a spirit of vengeance.

She…wasn't.

But Keine was.

Keine was there, all two-thirds of a meter of her, spindly little legs splayed, tiny little fists clenched and trembling. Though she was seething with rage, she also looked a little shocked at what she had done.

But she wasn't backing down.

Rumia was quite impressed, but she was also sort of dismayed. There was something deeply gratifying about watching her scrawny little friend sending all of their assailants running, but Keine was also blowing the big secret that the three of them had worked so hard to hide, not only from those outside the orphanage, but within as well.

And judging by how Keine's face was quickly changing from angry pink to horrified white, she had also figured out the danger she was in.

Fortunately, that was when Miss Mokou finally joined the fray.

If anyone had noticed that the tiny little girl was hitting harder than she ought to, it was immediately forgotten when the strange woman wearing strange clothes suddenly touched down in the middle of the violence. The three boys teaming up on Noba found themselves swept aside when a leg swung around into each of their faces. The four girls that were kicking Haruko, Eiko, and Hayate into submission were abruptly launched into the air in four different directions. Two men that had apparently decided to grab onto Yoshi and Hiro found themselves the ones grabbed onto as a hand suddenly seized each of them by the hair and slammed their skulls together.

This all takes time to explain, but the fact of the matter is that within mere _seconds_ the entire circle was cleared of anyone not from the Children's Home, leaving nothing but the orphans, a dazed Miss Haruhi, and an absolutely _enraged_ Miss Mokou.

All expect for one.

One of the boys that had been fighting Noba at the beginning had found himself with a hand wrapped around his throat, a hand with fingers more unrelenting than steel shackles attached to an arm harder than an oak beam, an arm that was hoisting him into the air with his legs dangling and forcing him to stare terrified down at a pair of eyes that seemed to be made of raging hellfire.

Several of the young men that had been hurled from the fight had collected themselves and were now readying themselves to come to their friend's defense. Apparently sensing this, Miss Mokou's head snapped around to turn her death glare at them, stopping them in their tracks.

"Try it," she growled. "See what happens."

Mokou was a tall woman, sure, but she wasn't that much taller than any of them, and she didn't seem to be particularly muscular. At a glance, one that did not know better might assume that with the benefit of surprise gone, it would be an easy task to overwhelm her and beat her down.

Rumia absolutely knew better. And she really, _really_ wanted to see what happens.

Unfortunately, the young men probably sensed what a colossal error that would be, and took a few steps back.

Damn.

That done, Miss Mokou returned her attention to her hostage. "So, you're the one that started this, right?" she said. "Aren't you?"

"Let him go, you animal!" some lady yelled. She was ignored.

"Please!" the boy cried. "I'm sorry! Don't hurt me!"

"Sorry? Sorry for what? What did you do?"

"I didn't mean it! I was just playing!"

"What. Did. You. Do?"

" _Mokou, stop!"_

Miss Mokou paused, but she didn't let the boy go. The crowd parted, and Miss Satoko appeared, accompanied by the previously absent Dai and Yuuki, who apparently had gone to find her when the fighting had started.

Miss Satoko looked more frantic and distraught than any time Rumia had seen her. Her face was pink, her mouth gaping open, her hat was gone, and she was grabbing at her own hair with both hands.

"What…what are you doing?" she sputtered as she took in the scene. "How…what… _what happened here?"_

"What happened?" said some guy that Rumia didn't recognize. "I'll tell you what happened! Your little _devils_ assaulted our boys, that's what happened!"

"That's not true!" Tomohiro shouted. He looked pretty roughed up, with both of his eyes blackened, his uniform torn and dirty, a darkening purple bruise on his cheek, and scratches all over his neck. However, of the original group of brawlers, he had come off better than Shinji or Noba. "They're the ones who started it!"

"Shut your mouth, you little savage!" said some woman, who looked like she was the mother of one of the local boys, if the way she was cradling her arms around him was any indication. "We all know this was _your_ doing!"

"It was not!"

"Lies! We all know what your kind is like!"

Tomohiro stared at her in complete befuddlement. "What do you mean, my kind? We're all Human!"

"Are you? Are you really?"

"You know, we can clear this up right now," Miss Mokou said. She gave the boy she was still holding aloft a slight shake. "So, how about it, buddy? How'd this all get started?"

The boy still looked terrified of her, and who could blame him? But seeing that one woman speak up on his behalf seemed to have given him enough courage to hold his tongue, which was really stupid as far as Rumia was concerned. If Miss Mokou decided to snap his neck, then she could probably do it long before anyone got close enough to save him.

Since he wasn't talking and Noba still looked completely out of it, Shinji spoke up. "We were just talking, then they all got right into our faces and wouldn't leave," he said, slurring his words slightly through swollen lips. "They said…they said…"

"Nothing!" Miss Mokou's captive suddenly shouted. "We didn't say anything to them!"

"You did! You asked if Noba cried when his mom and dad got eaten! You said that you bet that he _helped_ them eat them, that he's probably half youkai already! You said that we're only here to see who's the fattest to eat later!"

"I was just joking!" wailed the culprit.

"Thought you said that you didn't say anything," Miss Mokou pointed out.

"Then when we tried to walk away, they just grabbed us and pulled us back!" Shinji continued. "They said that they're not gonna let us take anyone, that we shoulda gotten eaten with our families!"

"Oh?" Miss Mokou said. "Then that's when you punched them?"

"No! We just pushed them away, and they pushed us back!"

"You liar!" the boy yelled!

"He did!" Haruko broke in. "We heard them! Then when they saw us, they said…" She shivered. "They said that we should go with them, that they wanted to see how wild the youkai had made us!"

Miss Satoko looked like she was going to be ill.

"Oh, is that right?" Miss Mokou said, her gaze traveling up to her squirming captive with deadly purpose.

"Mokou, don't," Miss Satoko whispered.

Then someone called out from the crowd, "Yeah, let him go!"

"He didn't mean any harm! What, can't you youkai lovers take a joke?"

Miss Mokou's gaze slipped from her captive to the crowd. "A joke."

"A joke?" Mister Joshua sputtered. "You call something like that a _joke?"_

"Hell yeah! Boys will be boys, you know. That's no reason to punch anyone!"

Rumia suddenly found herself wishing that she really was youkai-cursed or at the very least half-youkai like Keine. Then she might have been able to make . Then she might be able to wipe a few smirks off the faces she saw.

"Boys will be _boys?!"_ Mister Joshua repeated, aghast. "Listen to yourself, man! That's horrific! What kind of boys are you raising?"

"You're the ones with one of ours by the throat!" came the reply.

"You wanna replace him?" Miss Mokou said.

The guy in question, a middle-aged man with a big chest, big arms, and an even bigger beard shoved his way to the front of the crowd. "Try me, bitch."

"Mokou, please," Miss Satoko begged. "Don't."

Miss Mokou didn't so much as glance at her. "Okay," she said. She opened her hand, and the boy dropped. He looked around in bewilderment, and then fled as fast as his feet could take him.

"All right, asshole," Miss Mokou said as she strode toward the big man as Miss Satoko ineffectively grabbed at her arm. She didn't even slow Miss Mokou down. "Your wish is my command. I'll try you right-"

"ENOUGH OF THIS MADNESS!"

The new voice was loud, but kind of squeaky and cracked a bit in the middle. Still, it brought everything to an abrupt stop.

Four tough looking men were shoving their way through the crowd, making a path as they went. And between them was some short, fat guy with a big hat. "What is the _meaning_ of this?" he demanded.

Rumia frowned. "Who's that?" she said.

"Seriously?" Kohta whispered back. "That's Master Sonozika, the Human Leader!"

"Oh."

Keine winced. "Crap," she muttered.

Master Sonozika hadn't had to have walked far to reach the center of the commotion, but judging by the way he was heaving and gasping one might have thought he had just ran a marathon. "Satoko Yume, this is an outrage! Is this how you mean to convince me to allow your little monsters into the Human Village? They can't go five minutes without attacking somebody!"

Rumia bristled, and she wasn't the only one. "What did he call us?" she hissed.

"Steady," Keine said.

"Master Sonozika, I know thing got out of hand, but the orphans didn't start it," Miss Satoko protested.

"That's right," said Miss Haruhi, speaking for the first time. She still looked kind of rocked by the blow she had taken, but she was up and talking at least. "A group of boys deliberately picked a fight with us! They insulted their dead families, and made sexual passes at some of the girls!"

"And for _that_ you attack us!" Master Sonozika screeched.

"They were provoked!"

"They're just words! Get over it!"

"Words, huh?" Miss Mokou said. "Disparaging children's dead parents is just words now, are they? Threatening to rape little girls are just words? So hey, if I were to say that you look like what you get if a syphilis-ridden toad fucked a wad of pig fat, would that just be words?"

Now that Miss Mokou mentioned it, the resemblance was kind of uncanny. Rumia giggled a bit in spite of herself. So did Haruko. The two glanced at each other, instinctively resistant to sharing any kind of comradery, but then they both remembered that for now at least they were on the same side, so they both laughed again.

Master Sonozika, however, did not find it quite so humorous. "How…how _dare_ you, you disrespectful harlot! Don't you know who I am?"

"Mokou, do _not,"_ Miss Satoko said.

Again she was ignored. "Sure, Sonozika. That snout is unmistakable. Runs in the family." Miss Mokou glanced down at Master Sonozika's jiggling belly. "Among…other things."

"What are you talking about?"

"Eh, who cares?" Miss Mokou said with a shrug. "I mean, they're just words, right?"

Mister Joshua tugged on her sleeve. "Mokou, this isn't helping. You should stop." Again, he was ignored.

Master Sonozika gnashed his teeth. "Hold your tongue, woman. Or I'll have it cut out."

"That I would like to see. Hey, you know what?" Miss Mokou walked right up to him. He went pale and retreated a few step, while his guard immediately stepped between him and Miss Mokou, their hands on the hilts of their swords.

However, Miss Mokou wasn't going to attack him. Quite the opposite, really. "If you want to, I'll give you one free shot," she said, leaning over and turning her head to offer her cheek. "Come on, Piggy. You know you want it."

"Mokou, what are you doing?" Miss Haruhi screamed.

"Don't do this!" Mister Joshua agreed.

Master Sonozika was practically steaming with fury and embarrassment, but didn't take the bait, but then, he didn't have to. He merely shot a glare at one of his guards, who stepped forward to do it for him.

"No!" Miss Satoko yelled.

The guard was of the same height as Miss Mokou, and considerably more heavily muscled. Plus, he was wearing leather armor over his arms and the back of his hands that was studded with iron balls. He slammed the back of his hand right across her face with enough force to shatter bone.

Rumia winced. Kohta gasped. Keine covered her eyes.

But Miss Mokou didn't fall under the blow. In fact, she didn't give at all. The hand hit her cheek…and just stopped, the iron balls digging into her skin but not breaking it. She didn't even have to shift her balance.

Instead, she just remained crouched as her dark maroon eyes rolled around up to lock gazes with the stupefied guard. She smiled. "Okay," she said as she straightened up. "I guess that clears up a thing or-"

"That will be _quite_ enough."

This time, the new voice wasn't nearly as loud or as frantic as Master Sonozika's had been, but it cut through the crowd just the same. The locals started murmuring to one another, and many quickly moved out of the way of the newcomer of their own accord as he strode into the din.

It was Mister Joshua's not-friend, the tall weird guy dressed in brown. He was walking forward with less speed but considerably more confidence than Master Sonozika had, both hands wrapped around that t-shaped thing on his necklace.

"Friends, friends, what is this?" he said. "Why are we fighting like children? Come on, you're better than this."

Then he glanced at Miss Mokou, and his brow furrowed behind his stupid dark glasses. "Well, some of us anyway."

"Okay, yeah, I do not care for you," Miss Mokou said.

"Feeling's mutual." Then he looked over to Master Sonozika, who looked quite realized at his arrival. "Gendou, Gendou, Gendou, what is all this? I knew things outside of the Human Village were…rough, but not an hour after our arrival and things devolve into a brawl!"

Master Sonozika sighed. "Well, Skinner, that's the thing. It seems that some of the local children were set upon by _these!"_ He motioned toward the orphans and their caretakers, all of which were still in the circle and surrounded on by all sides.

"We did not!" Tomohiro shouted as he came forward. "They're the ones who-"

The man identified as "Skinner" suddenly thrust a glove-covered palm into Tomohiro's face. "Do not interrupt your elders, _son,"_ he chided.

Tomohiro stumbled back. "I'm not your son! And your hand _stinks!"_

Skinner's head jerked back as if he had been physically struck. He looked down at his hand, as if he were contemplating taking a swing of his own at Tomohiro's face.

Noticing this, Miss Mokou sidled up between him and Tomohiro. "Yeah, don't," she said flatly.

Skinner's hand flexed into a fist, uncurled, and flexed again. Despite his earlier calmness, he looked like he was about to fly into a rage of his own and kick up the brawl all over again. To be honest, now that Miss Mokou was here, Rumia kind of hoped that he would.

But then he relaxed, and reached up to clasp both hands over his necklace again. "Brother Joshua, I am again disappointed," he said as he stepped around Miss Mokou to turn toward Mister Joshua. "I knew that your time spent with this type had been bad for you, but I didn't know how bad. Violent youths, disrespectful women, and-"

Suddenly he stopped. And he stared. Not as Mister Joshua, but past him.

To where Rumia, Kohta, and Keine were standing.

"I could say the same," Mister Joshua said. "I can already see what great things you're teaching the people here, the good news you're spreading. Fear, superstition, and lies. Very Christlike indeed."

Skinner didn't answer. He just kept staring in a way that made Rumia's skin crawl.

So she spread her hands, glowered back, and mouthed, _What?_

Skinner tilted his head, but it didn't seem to be in response to Rumia.

It was then that Rumia realized that he wasn't looking at her. Close to, but not quite. Rather, he was looking at _Keine._

Rumia felt cold ice sweep down her spine. He knew. She didn't know how he knew, but he did.

Gritting her teeth behind her grimace, Rumia held her defiant stance, refusing to back down.

"Nathaniel?" Mister Joshua said.

Skinner didn't move.

Mister Joshua glanced over his shoulder at the trio, scowled, and positioned himself right in front of Skinner. It wasn't an impressive sight, as the top of his head only came up to the taller man's chest, but he was doing what he could. "Nathaniel! Stop looking at them and look at me."

"Better do what he says, Skinny," Miss Mokou said. She laid a firm hand on Skinner's shoulder.

Skinner reacted immediately to the touch, wrenching his shoulder away and seizing her by the wrist.

"Don't you _dare_ touch me," he seethed. "Don't you dare…"

He tried to hurl her to one side, but when he yanked on her arm, she merely clenched up her muscles and stayed where he was.

Frowning, Skinner tried again. Miss Mokou's arm barely moved.

"You finished?" she drawled.

"Hmmm." Skinner released her wrist. "You are…surprisingly strong."

"I work out."

"So I see." Then he brushed himself off and backed away from her. "Regardless, this little spat is pointless. The main source of conflict is the riot."

"Fight," Miss Mokou corrected. "It was a fight." She tilted her head toward the original group that had been brawling with Noba, Shinji, and Tomohiro. "Those boys over there tried to provoke some of ours, and it worked. Things escalated."

"Thanks to you, I presume."

"Nah. I got here just in time to see a whole bunch of grown-ass men surrounding a bunch of boys beating up on a bunch of orphans and doing nothing to break it up. They didn't even try to stop the young girls that _were_ trying to stop it from getting hit. It wasn't until the rest of our kids ran in to help their friends that anyone decided to do something." She swept her eyes past Skinner and over the crowd. "Mainly by rushing in to beat up a bunch of kids. So I put a stop to it."

Rumia suddenly found herself very glad that she and her friends had dishes duty for the rest of the week, because as far as she was concerned, Miss Mokou was now officially the coolest person in the world and she wanted to hang out with her as much as possible.

In fact, her words of shame were having an effect. As Rumia looked around, she saw more than one previously angry face now start to wilt, a few even looking away. Ha! Take _that!_

"Really?" Skinner said. "All by yourself?"

"Pretty much, yeah. So, you gonna continue this little interrogation, or can we move on? Because obviously you're the one in charge here."

"Ah, h-h-hold on a moment!" Master Sonozika suddenly sputtered. "Now, Nathaniel Skinner is a dear friend and a highly valuable advisor, but let's not presume!"

"Then why is he doing all the talking then?" Miss Mokou turned to the rest of the crowd. "What about you guys, huh? Does the turd-coat here speak for all of you too?"

There was a pause, and then a woman called, "He's with the Leader!"

"So?" someone else countered. "I've never seen him before."

"Yeah, who is he, anyway?"

"Shut your mouth, you backwaters!" called a well-dressed man that obviously came from the Village. "That's Brother Nathaniel Skinner, a man of very high reputation!"

"Reputation for _what?_ Dressing like a pile of horse shit?"

Everyone laughed at that. The spell Skinner had had over the crowd was fading.

Skinner noticed, but he kept his cool. Rather than retort, he merely cleared his throat and walked over to Master Sonozika. Leaning over, he whispered into the stout man's ear.

Master Sonozika seemed surprised. He whispered something back, and Skinner responded. Master Sonozika nodded.

"All right, I think we've heard enough," Master Sonozika said. "Regardless of whoever started it, things clearly have gotten out of hand. But even so, children will fight. So, let us all put this business behind us and go on with our lives. Mistress Yume, I trust you will discipline the children you claim to care for and try to rein in their wild impulses?"

Miss Satoko went white with indignation. "Wait, they were the ones who-"

"Good! For now, you should take them home. We wouldn't want another, ahem, incident now, would we?"

Miss Satoko looked like she was going to argue the point further, but then Miss Mokou tapped her on the shoulder. Miss Satoko looked at her in confusion. In response, Miss Mokou just shook her head.

Taking the message, Miss Satoko said, "All right. Children, two lines please. Mokou, could you please help Noba? Haruhi, keep close to me. Joshua, bring up the rear."

The family slowly and in some cases painfully gathered together. Those who needed help walking got it, and the youngest and those who were hurt worse were brought to the middle while the rest formed a shell around them.

The crowd opened up, and they filed walked out of the market. Rumia realized that her right leg was limping a little, but she refused to give in to it and walked as straight and steady as she could. As she did, she made sure to glower at each and every face she passed. In some cases the glower was returned, but in most people refused to meet her eyes. Good. They ought to be ashamed.

Then she glanced the other way, toward her family. Haruko, Eiko, and Hayate were walking close to her. She caught Haruko's eye for just a moment.

A beat passed, and then Haruko gave her the slightest of nods and glanced away. The message was clear. They were still enemies, but in this specific case, they were enemies on the same side, and Rumia would be glad to fight side-by-side with a stupid cow like Haruko any day if it meant standing up to all _those_ assholes.

Finally they passed over a hill and were fully out of sight of the market. When that happened, everyone relaxed just a little. Straightened shoulders slumped, heads that were held up high dropped, and those in pain allowed themselves to show it. Still, nobody said anything, though some of the younger ones were crying a little, as was Miss Haruhi.

Rumia couldn't blame them. She was hurting. It wasn't that bad, and she had been hurt worse in the past through various accidents and mishaps, but there was a difference between falling out of a tree or getting into a fistfight with Shinji because she had caught him cheating at Mahjong and being outright assaulted like that!

…okay, fine, she had technically been the one doing the assaulting, but that was just because her family had been assaulted first, or at least she was pretty sure they had been. Regardless, getting thrown to the ground and kicked at by complete strangers was something that she was still struggling to process.

Kohta had taken worse. One eye was swollen up, and he was limping even worse than she was. Keine was between them, providing support with both of their arms thrown across her shoulders. Under normal circumstances, Rumia's pride would have dissuaded her from accepting that much help, but today she just took it without complaining. Or at least, she had waited until they were out of sight of the market before accepting it. Her pride was still there, but she was now a bit more specific about who she was allowing herself to appear weak in front of. And after everything they had endured together, the rest of her family got a one-day pass.

The rest of the kids were in various stages of beaten up. Noba had taken the worse; in fact he was barely conscious. Miss Mokou had his arm over her shoulder while she held onto his waist. Rumia was fairly certain that she could have thrown him over her shoulder if she wanted, but he would have been mortified to have been carried away like that, and Miss Mokou was the sort to know that. Shinji and Tomohiro were pretty bad off as well. They were walking under their own power, but Shinji's face was still a bloody, swollen mess, while Tomohiro had two black eyes and was cradling his left arm. And Keichii had to stop every few steps to spit out blood.

Yoshi and Hiro had taken a few hits, with Yoshi having a very prominent purple lump on his forehead. Still, they seemed okay overall, and judging by the way they were swaggering, they were probably proud of the hits they had taken and given, the little savages. Rumia had to smile. They had earned that right as far as she was concerned.

As for the others, specifically Melissa, Kana, Kazuchika, Akito, Dai, and Yuuki, they hadn't been hurt on account of having not joined in for various reasons, but that didn't mean they were all right. Melissa looked absolutely _mortified._ Since she hadn't been born in Gensokyo like the others, there was a lot she was still getting used to, and while she found most of it to be wonderful, the darker parts tended to scare her, and Rumia was willing to bet that she had never expected the worse to come from other Humans. Hell, Rumia herself hadn't expected that. Maybe her family hadn't been killed by youkai after all. Maybe it had been a bunch of assholes like the ones back there, and they had just blamed it on youkai.

Kazuchika seemed to be in a daze. He was holding onto Akito while leading Dai and Yuuki along. As the older kid who most often looked after the younger ones, he was probably really messed up over Yoshi and Hiro getting hurt. And as for Kana…

Kana looked…weird. Well, okay, she always looked weird, but unlike the others she didn't look scared, sad, betrayed, angry, or even proud. Instead, she was thoughtfully staring at the sky with a sort of seriousness she usually reserved for staring at dust motes, and she was fingering with something in her pocket, probably a trinket she had picked up in the chaos. Hopefully it wasn't something someone would coming looking for. That was the last thing they needed.

All in all, they were a sorry bunch, but they had survived. And Rumia was glad that they had fought back instead of running away. She smirked, though doing so upset one of her bruises. Life had done them no favors, but it sure had made them tough.

They continued on, Miss Satoko in the lead, Mister Joshua in the back, beginning what promised to be a long and painful walk home.

But then they heard someone call out to them. "Hey! Satoko Yume! Wait a moment!"

Everyone immediately tensed up in anticipation of another attack, but it wasn't an angry mob coming after them, it was only three men flying their way. Rumia quickly scanned them. She didn't remember seeing them in the fight, but that could swiftly change.

The one that had called to them was the oldest and biggest, a big man with a barrel-shaped chest, large arms, a wide face, and a thin beard. He touched and the other two touched down in front of the group.

"Watanabe?" Miss Satoko said.

Watanabe nodded. "Look. I don't know what happened back there or why, but…" He sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't try to help. We were heading home we heard the shouting, and when we got back everything was so confusing and-"

"Watanabe, it's fine," Miss Satoko said. "And it's somewhat heartening to hear that not everyone approved of what happened back there."

Watanabe scowled. "It's that man Skinner. Ever since he and his kind showed up, people in the big village have just been getting strange. And it's spreading."

Rumia glanced over her shoulder at Mister Joshua, who sort of fell in the category of "his kind." For his part, Mister Joshua didn't react in one way or the other.

"Well, he certainly helped, but the rest of them are still responsible for their actions," Miss Satoko said.

"Yes, I don't know what's happening. But let me help make it up to you." Watanabe pointed. "My farm's not far. Please, rest a while, see to your injuries, get something to eat."

Miss Satoko hesitated. "Watanabe, I don't-"

"Your children are hurt, and people I count among my friends are to blame. Let me do this much for you."

"Well…" Miss Satoko looked back toward the group. Most of the kids were too tired to really make much of a response, but nobody objected.

"All right," she sighed. "That would be very much appreciated. Thank you."

Honestly Rumia really just wanted to go home, but making the trip on her aching leg did not sound fun, and there were others worse off than she was. And if Miss Satoko trusted this guy, then fine.

The group changed direction, moving off the path and across the field. As they went, Rumia was struck by a sudden thought, something that had gone amiss through the whole brawl, something that nobody else had pointed out.

With everything that had been going on, what had happened to their guards?


	5. Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Watanabe Umino's farm wasn't far from either the market nor the orphanage, so it made for a convenient waypoint between the two. Rumia had seen it several times in trips past, though she had never actually set foot on its borders. But today seemed an excellent day to break that trend.

Finally everyone was seated in a circle. Missus Umino and all the Umino kids brought out warm cider for everyone. Rumia accepted hers with a nod of thanks and cautiously gave it a sip. It was good.

Mister Joshua and Miss Haruhi were both sitting at the head of the circle, whispering to one another. Miss Haruhi had stopped crying, but she still looked pretty upset, while Mister Joshua mostly looked deeply disturbed, like he knew something about what had happened that the rest of them didn't. Rumia really hoped that he was going to spill, and if he didn't, she made a point to ask him directly.

Just…not now.

As for Miss Satoko and Miss Mokou, they were still outside, talking to one another. Rumia couldn't make out what they were saying, but judging by how animated they looked through the door, it was probably very…dramatic. Rumia really hoped that Miss Mokou wasn't going to get into trouble. If there was one bright spot of this whole disastrous day, it was watching her be a total badass.

Watanabe and his family were bustling to and fro, helping tending to all the kids that were hurt, which still was most of them. The big man knelt down in front of Kohta. "Oh, that is a dark one, all right," he said, peering at Kohta's swollen eye. He soaked a small piece of cloth in a bath of herbs, pressed it against Kohta's eye, and then tied the patch securely in place with a long bandage. "There you are, son. You look like a proper rogue with that on. All the girls will be chasing after you now!"

Though he was still a little dazed, Kohta perked up at that, and he slowly grinned.

Rumia rolled his eyes.

Then Watanabe looked over to her. "What about you? You were fighting like a little devil out there. Any war wounds that need patching up?"

"I'm fine," Rumia growled. That wasn't necessarily true, as her leg was really starting to ache, and several bruises had formed around her torso, but she wasn't about to let a stranger know that, not even a nice one.

Watanabe smirked, which just pissed Rumia off all the more. "Ah, the warrior's scowl. Seen that many times." He started to rise, but then paused. "Hey now. I know those eyes. Rumia, is that you?"

Rumia felt her blood run cold. He knew her name? Why did he know her name?

"No," she said. Unfortunately, at the exact same time, Kohta said, "You know her?" She angrily elbowed him, only to regret it when she apparently hit a sore spot, making him double over in pain. "Ah! Sorry."

Watanabe smiled. "I'd say I do know you, Rumia. After all, I was the one who brought you to Satoko when you were just a baby."

Rumia froze. "What?" she whispered.

Watanabe knelt down in front of her. "That's right. I was actually good friends with your Mama and Papa. Helped them build their house, actually. And I was the one who knew where to look to find you after they were killed."

For once Rumia didn't know what to say. "You…You knew them?"

"Rocco was one of my closest friends," Watanabe said. "I still remember how happy he was when you were born. And your big sisters-"

Rumia felt her throat start to close up. "Stop it," she growled. "Who cares? They're dead, and I'm not. I don't need to hear about a bunch of dead people!"

Most of the people nearby stared at her in shock, but Rumia didn't care. She just crossed her arms and looked away.

She expected Watanabe to be mad, but instead he just raised his brow. "You got a lot of your grandmother in you, Rumia. You're becoming a real fighter. I think you'll be all right."

He then moved on, and soon everyone stopped staring at her, save for her friends.

"Rumia, what the hell?" Kohta said. "That's the guy that saved you! And if he knew your family, then-"

"Shut up, Kohta," Rumia said. He sighed but acquiesced.

"Rumia, are you okay?" Keine said, laying a hand on her shoulder.

Rumia instinctively flinched, but she didn't shake it off. She just sat there with her head and shoulders bowed and fought to keep the tears in.

Suddenly Mister Joshua cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention.

"I want everyone to understand something here," he said. "No matter what any of those people said back there, no matter what anyone might say about you in the future, this wasn't your fault. Okay? We all understand that?"

"Yes, Mister Joshua," said most of the younger kids. Some of the older ones just nodded. A few did nothing at all.

"And don't listen to that garbage about curses or taints or something like that. That's just fools talking. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of you, no matter what they say."

"But…" Eiko started to say, but then her voice caught. She swallowed, and tried again. "But why are they saying that at all? Why do they think that?"

Mister Joshua hesitated, and then said, "Because they're afraid. They're afraid and they're stupid. As wrong as it sounds, people sometimes become afraid of other people's problems, because they think that it'll spread to them. So they're somehow become convinced that just because most of you lost your families to youkai, it means that youkai are more likely to attack you and anyone that talks to you, or some such nonsense. But it is nonsense, understand?"

"But my parents didn't get eaten by youkai," Dai said. "They died in a landslide!"

"And mine got burned in a fire!" Hayate added.

Keine said nothing, but her fingers clenched up. Rumia quickly glanced around. Good, nobody was looking at her. Her secret was still safe. Hopefully.

"Like I said, it's complete stupidity," Mister Joshua said. "When people get a little scared, it doesn't take much to get them to listen to stupid ideas."

Maybe so, but Rumia was more worried about something else, something very dangerous and very real.

She glanced over to Keine, who was staring off at nothing. Rumia still remembered how Skinner had stared at her, like he was able to see deep into her heart and mind. And that was a problem.

As it so happened, Keine was the only child that wasn't actually an orphan, not entirely. Her mother had died giving birth to her, but presumably her father, if he could be called that, was still out there somewhere, as he had been a youkai. That was why she looked half as old as she really was. Youkai lived forever, and when they had kids with Humans, their offspring's lifespans were twice as long as those fully Human. And that was why she was so strong and fast despite being so small and skinny.

Of all the kids that Rumia lived with, only she and Kohta knew Keine's secret, and they had long sworn to keep it safe. They knew that Keine's conception had been…less than consensual, and there were those that would consider that alone to mean she had been born evil, to say nothing of having youkai blood. It was all bullshit of course. Keine was Rumia's friend, and she was easily the least monstrous of their little trio, but like Mister Joshua had said all it took was a little fear for people to start being stupid and dangerous.

As for the grown-ups, well, Miss Satoko _probably_ knew, though she had never mentioned it, and if she had told the others Rumia had never heard. And Miss Mokou had figured it out literally the second she saw Keine, but like Rumia and Kohta she had also sworn to never tell anyone.

But that man Skinner had also figured it out. Rumia didn't know how, but he had. And that scared her.

…

If the whole of Mokou's life were to be laid out in a book, then the story would be dark, bloody, unceasingly violent, and take up an entire library. As such, the two years in which she had lived in the Aoki Yume's Children's Home and known Satoko Yume would be contained in only a few short sentences, a barely perceptible drop of happiness in an ocean of pain and hate.

And yet it somehow felt so much longer than it was. Suddenly, her life had gone from having just enough room for herself and one other person in it to having over twenty, and unlike that one other person, they were people she actually cared about rather than wished to murder violently and often. She had gotten to know these kids and their vibrant personalities, from their quirks to their preferences to their aspirations to their petty little rivalries to their intense friendships. Those little people were just so strangely fascinating, at once simple and uncomplicated and yet full of depth, and Mokou had thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them, even if she had done so rather quickly. She had always been a fast learner, after all.

And she knew Satoko. She could read the younger woman's emotions like a book, could tell at a glance how she was feeling and why. And at that moment, Satoko was very, very angry.

Satoko didn't often get angry. She had spent her entire life looking after children who had every reason to act out, and as such her well of patience, tolerance, and understanding seemed to be bottomless at times. However, there was a very specific list of situations that set her off. Apparently, Mokou had triggered several of them.

"How could you, Mokou?" Satoko said as she anxiously paced back and forth, her hands unceasingly wringing each other. "Do you have any idea what you've done? What you've done to us, to me, to _them?"_

"Sure," Mokou said, unperturbed. "I stopped our kids from getting beaten to death."

"You were going to kill that boy!"

"No, not kill, not even hurt. Just scare him a little."

"Scare? You wanted to scare him?" Satoko let out a bitter chuckle. "I'll say you did. Right there, in front of his family, his friends, his neighbors, in front of godsdamned _everyone!_ You've gone and made us an enemy of everybody!"

Mokou folded her arms. "I'd say that already happened. You saw how everybody was treating us when we got there."

"Not everybody! Some, yes, but not everybody! But oh, they sure are now!" Satoko stopped pacing, though her hands didn't stop twisting against each other. "Mokou, I know you have a dark past, I know you've…done things that you don't like talking about, and I've been content to leave things at that. I've left your secrets alone, and you have been nothing but a boon until now."

Mokou quirked an eyebrow. "But?"

"But you promised me that your past wouldn't put the children in danger! That was the one condition of letting you stay! The one condition!"

"And it hasn't," Mokou said. "This had nothing to do with that."

"Hasn't it?" Satoko laughed again. "Oh, sure, those people that tried to kill you haven't shown up, but the person they had a quarrel with sure did! Admit it, Mokou. This wasn't the first time you've had your hands around someone's neck like that."

That was true enough. Hell, it wasn't even the hundredth. Maybe not even the thousandth. "No, it wasn't. But I needed him to admit what he had done."

"What he had _done?_ It was a cruel comment, yes, but not deserving of strangling!"

"No? What about him perving at Haruko, Eiko, and Hayate? Besides, all most of those people saw was our kids fighting theirs, with no way of telling who started it." She shrugged. "Well, now they do."

"And what good did that do?" Satoko demanded. "They were looking for a fight, yes, but-"

"They were attacking _our_ kids," Mokou said again, making sure to emphasize the _our._ "They were even hitting Haruhi. Noba's got a concussion, Shinji and Keiichi both have broken noses, and many more have black eyes, split lips, and more bruises than I care to count. Satoko, this wasn't just a scuffle over some childish insult that got out of hand, this was an _assault!"_

"But-"

"No, listen to me. All those people wouldn't have rushed to join in if they weren't already ready to go off at the slightest excuse. Nobody other than Haruhi and the girls tried to break it up until I got there, and they were attacked for it. Satoko, something is _wrong._ Something is actively working to isolate us, to turn everyone against us. And I think I know what it is."

At this, Satoko sighed. "So do I. It's that man."

Mokou tilted her head. "Nathaniel Skinner, right? That big tall bastard dressed mostly in brown?"

"That's him."

"Joshua said that he was from the Outside World too, that the two of them used to be friends."

Satoko nodded. "Yes, I know. He and Joshua came over with a small group. They wandered into our land one night, and we gave them shelter. Most of them went to the Human Village after that, but Joshua came back. Said that his God would have wanted him to help us."

"Oh yeah? Something tells me that he and that Skinner guy get very different messages from their God. And really, you put them up when they were lost and alone, and this is how they repay you?"

"I know, Mokou," Satoko said wearily.

"Well, we should do something about him."

" _No!"_ Satoko looked horrified. "Are you insane? You can't just _kill_ someone!"

"I didn't say kill him," Mokou said, though to be perfectly honest she had been thinking that exact thing. In fact, if it came down to it, she was reasonably certain that she could get into the Human Village, conveniently "vanish" Skinner, dispose of all evidence, and get out again with nobody being the wiser. "I said do something about him."

Satoko wasn't buying it. "Mokou, do _not._ You've already made things bad enough already."

"How? By saving the kids? If that would have gone on much longer, then someone could have _died!"_

"And I'm grateful for that, I really am! But you should have just driven them off and left it at that! But no, you had to hold one of them hostage and threaten his life in front of everyone!"

"So? He had it coming!"

Satoko stared at her. "Mokou, _that doesn't matter!_ Why do you think so many ran in once the other kids ran to their friends' defense! It's pack mentality at work! If you had just stuck to defending the children and prevented anyone else from attacking, then we could have sorted things out once everyone had calmed down. But you had to keep things hot and angry!"

"Sorted things out?" Mokou repeated in disbelief. "Satoko, what the hell? They _attacked_ us! There is a line, and they crossed it! There's no sorting anything after that!"

Satoko honestly looked like she wanted to slap Mokou. "Mokou, you've been with us for only two years. I've been doing this literally my entire life! Do you honestly think this is a first time one of ours got into a fight with some rowdy locals? Maybe not quite as bad as this, but it's happened before! And when it does, you break it up, get everyone separated, and calm things down! _Then_ you figure out who did what and who was responsible! But you…you just had to throw oil all over that fire and keep them angry! You gave them a reason to hate us! What are we supposed to do now? We're already banned from the Human Village, and now you've turned the other settlements against us too?"

Mokou opened her mouth to retort, but Satoko wasn't having it. _"Think,_ Mokou! Think about it! Skinner's been spreading his poison, telling people lies about us, getting them to hate _orphans_ of all things, and you just confirmed it! You, a woman that none of them knew, just showed up out of nowhere and drove off several men twice your size! You held up a young man at least your own weight, if not heavier, with one hand and showed no signs of strain! You took that blow from Gendou's guard without even upsetting your balance! You refused to be move by Skinner, someone who ought to have easily picked you up as if you were a child!"

"Well, now they know what they're getting into if they mess with us again."

"No, Mokou! You're still not thinking! Skinner's apparently been filling people's heads with stories about us consorting with youkai and being tainted by them and probably getting strange and dangerous powers from them. And then you show up, doing what you did, challenging everyone to their face and demonstrating abilities that a woman of your size ought not to have! Even if most people think that Skinner's stories are nonsense, you just gave them a reason to rethink that! Maybe, they're wondering now, maybe there's something to those stories! Maybe Skinner might have a point!"

Mokou frowned. When it was put like that, Satoko did have a point. Still… "So, what, I'm supposed to just bow my head and suck up to those idiots just because they're afraid? I'm supposed to just stand aside and let them hurt our kids?"

"Of course not! I'm not upset about what you rescuing Noba and the others, I'm upset about what you did after! Tell the truth, Mokou. That wasn't just about making a point. You were enjoying yourself."

Mokou grimaced. It was true, she had enjoyed that burst of violence, brief as it had been. Two years were an incredibly insignificant amount of time to her, but she hadn't gone that long without hurting another person in a long, long time. Breaking herself out of that cycle had given her nothing but relief, but part of her still craved it.

"That's what scares me, Mokou," Satoko said. "You know that there's nothing I wouldn't do to protect the kids. But if you're going to escalate things just…just for the _fun_ of it, then I can't have that. I can't have you making yourself a danger."

Mokou breathed in and out. "Well, maybe you have a point," she admitted.

"I know."

Shuffling her feet a little, Mokou put her hands in her pockets and said, "Look, if you want me to go then I'll go. But right now, I don't think that you should."

Satoko sighed. "I know. Despite my…frustration, you did save them, and it would be…unbecoming of me to throw you out after that. Besides, what's done is done, and if things are really getting that bad, then…then we might need someone like you."

Now _that_ was sort of scary to hear, and Mokou found herself wondering if Skinner might not accidentally have a point. Granted, all that business about being tainted by youkai was complete nonsense, but Mokou had been at the orphanage for only two years and already it was under the threat of…invasion? War? Maybe there was a curse at play. Maybe violence just followed her wherever she went.

"That's…disturbing," she said. "But we can deal with that when it comes. Right now though, we have another problem."

"Oh?"

Mokou nodded toward the barn, where the kids were trying to recover. "Yeah. Them. They just had the fright of their lives. Even the ones that didn't get hurt just saw what probably looked like all the Humans in Gensokyo turning on them. They've already lost their families, and now their own species is after them. They're scared, they're confused, and they're angry."

"I know that, Mokou."

"Do you? Look, you know people better than I do, but I know fear better than you. Get mad at me for losing it if you must, but don't show it in front of them. Because right now, we're the only ones that seem like we're on their side. We need to present a unified front, show them that we're all working together to protect them."

Satoko thought on that for a moment, and then nodded. "Okay, that makes sense. What else?"

Mokou frowned. "Well, prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Obviously this is going to come up again, and you're going to try to work something out. But in the meantime…" She shrugged. "Look, I left my past life behind, sure, but I still, uh, know a few people, people who have their ears to the ground. In fact, just last night I was given a sort of head's up from one of them."

"What?"

"Look, I'm not saying it has anything to do with what happened, but I got word that some sort of shenanigans is brewing in the Youkai Forest. I don't know anything in specific, but apparently the nasty things that live in there are up to _something."_

Satoko looked incredulous. "Wait, are you saying that are problems really are youkai related, only…from _them_ instead of us? You think youkai might be behind whatever Skinner and Sonozika are doing?"

"No clue. Might be a coincidence, but the timing's suspect. Anyway, I'm thinking I should look up some old friends, see if they've heard anything."

"Wait, what kind of friends?" Satoko said, alarmed.

"Well, the Hakurei Shrine Maiden for one. We've worked together a couple of times in the past. There's also a hermit or two of my acquaintance, might go poking around the inhabitants of the Youkai Mountain as well. They don't have much to do with the Youkai Forest despite having pretty much the same name, but they are nothing but relentless when it comes to sniffing out gossip. If anything's up, they would have at least heard of it." Mokou frowned. "In fact, that brawl back there will probably be making headlines on their papers tomorrow."

"Oh," Satoko said. "Well, I guess that…makes sense."

Truth be told, Mokou had left a few names off that list. It was better if Satoko didn't know everything about what she was up to. "In the meantime though, we should prepare the kids for a worst-case scenario. Flying lessons are coming up, in fact. I know it's just going to be the kids in the twelve to fourteen range, but the younger ones ought to learn as well. We should also look to see if anyone's got any neat powers we could use, and start drilling them to-"

"No!" Satoko snapped. "We are not turning them into an army!"

Mokou paused, and then said, "Satoko, we may not have a choice."

"I don't care," Satoko said stubbornly. "My family started the Children's Home so that they could have something resembling a normal life, and I intend to give it to them. They need to have things return to normal as soon as possible."

"Normal? Satoko, you told me to think, now it's your turn! I already told you, this wasn't just some idiots being idiots! I'm telling you, _something is wrong!_ There's something in motion, something that's going after us, after our kids. And I'll bet my bottom yen that that Skinner guy is at the center of it!"

…

Back in the washroom of his house in the Human Village, Nathaniel Skinner dipped a washcloth in the bowl of soapy water and carefully cleaned the sweat off his face.

He was standing bare-chested in front of the half-length mirror set in the wall. Obtaining it had been ridiculously difficult. This godforsaken country was so out of touch with civilization that _glass_ was considered a luxury, at least where he was stuck. But he had gotten his hands on one, and now could see his profile in full.

He did not like what he saw.

His face was flushed, and his body glistened with sweat. He had managed to keep his cool, but it had been a close thing. That strange woman had upset him far greater than he could have expected. That was a problem. She was just a woman, after all. She ought not have that much of an effect on him.

But he knew better than that. She was more than just a woman. He wasn't sure what she was exactly, but he meant to find out.

Sighing, he set to work wiping himself down. Then he gingerly dipped his right hand into another basin, this one filled with hot water treated with herbs. He winced as the pins and needles erupted all over his palm and wrist, but he kept it submerged until the pain was too much to bear. Then he carefully dried it, though even the touch of the soft cloth was painful.

He then picked up a set of clean linens and began to bind up his right hand. Tighter and tight he wound the cloth, until it was completely encased.

From outside, he heard a fervent knock at the front door. Skinner started at the sudden sound, and then he cursed. Who was it now?

A moment later the Mai, the housekeeper, knocked hesitantly at the door. "Master Skinner?" she said. "Master Sonozika is here to see you."

Of course he was. "Let him in, and offer refreshments!" he called through the wooden door. "I'll be along shortly!"

Skinner hastily pulled on his clothes, starting with his long-sleeved shirt, then his heavy leather coat, and finally the thick gloves. He finished buttoning up his shirt, repositioned his silver crucifix, and checked himself in the mirror.

It would have to do.

Gendou was fretting in the front room. That was no surprise; Gendou was _always_ fretting. It got aggravating at times, but on the plus side it did make him quite receptive to just about anything Nathaniel had to say.

When he saw Nathaniel enter the room, he perked up immediately. "Ah, Skinner. Good. Sorry for popping by on such short notice, but-" Then his piggish eyes narrowed. "Good _gods,_ man! Do you even wear that thing indoors? You must be sweltering!"

Quite the opposite, really. "I often find myself called away on the Lord's work on short notice," Nathaniel said. "So I find it easier to always be dressed for an unexpected journey."

"Journey to _where?_ You never leave the village!" Then before Nathaniel could respond, Gendou just shrugged and said, "Oh, never mind. It doesn't matter. But we have to talk about what happened at the market! That was outrageous!"

On that, Nathaniel agreed. "But not at all unexpected. It is, after all, what I've been telling you."

"No, not at all. And you were right, of course." With a sigh, Gendou settled down into a nearby chair. "Still, it's so hard to believe. They're just children, after all. Wild, savage, totally ungovernable children, but children nevertheless."

"Well, that's how they operate. The evil ones, I mean. Corrupt the children, go after the parents. And when parents are lacking, go after the good men and women. It is the same back in my world as well." Skinner then changed the subject. "Still, as troublesome as all of this was, it was…very illuminating."

"I'll say it was! They were like animals! Especially that one woman, the one with the red pants. Do you know her?"

"Not until today. Apparently she's the orphanage's cook, which says something about them. Joshua Stump said that her name was Fujiwara no Mokou. Does that name mean anything to you?"

Gendou didn't respond.

"Gendou?"

The small man had gone completely pale. He face was sweaty even at the best of times, but now his pores were practically gushing.

Nathaniel frowned. "Gendou, are you all right? You look like you've seen a ghost." Which, to be fair, was something of a literal occurrence around those parts.

"What? No, I…" Gendou licked his lips. "Well, maybe."

"You recognize that name?"

"Er, ah, I have heard of someone with that name before, but…" He shook his head. "No, it must be a coincidence. _That_ person lived long before Gensokyo was even created! She would have been dead and buried for centuries by now!"

"Unless she became a youkai," Nathaniel pointed out. He didn't have any idea who Gendou was talking about, but he was now very curious.

Gendou gasped. "Is it her, then? Is she the youkai?"

No, she was not. There were youkai that looked incredibly Human, enough to fool the unwise and unlearned perhaps, but Nathaniel was able to tell at a glance whether or not someone was Human or something else. And this woman, this "Mokou" was certainly no youkai, though she wasn't exactly Human either. Still, while falsehood were explicitly against his faith, he felt that God would forgive him this one, as it served a higher purpose. "Without any doubt," he said solemnly.

"No," Gendou whispered. "No, it can't be. She…she murdered my ancestors. The stories about her…and now she's here for me!"

Nathaniel still didn't know what Gendou was talking about, but he knew an opportunity when he saw it. "It makes sense then, doesn't it?"

"Yes. All of it. How could I have been so blind?"

Nathaniel sat down next to him and placed his left hand on Gendou's shoulder, his right squeezing his crucifix. "You see, then, the importance of acting quickly."

"Right. Right. You have a plan, then?"

"That I do, but there are some things that I need to set in motion first." He rubbed the bristles of his beard with his left hand, the right still gripping his cross.

"What things?" Gendou asked.

Nathaniel smiled. "Don't worry yourself, my old friend. Leave it to me."

"Right, of course," Gendou said. He stood up. "Just…keep me informed…of anything that I ought to be informed of."

The implicit meaning was clear. _If you have to do anything that will upset my people, then I'd damn well better not hear about it._ "Don't worry yourself, Gendou," Nathaniel said. "The Lord's plan may not seem clear at first, but it has never failed me yet."

"Yes, well, here's hoping it stays that way," Gendou said albeit a bit skeptically. He was respectful of Nathaniel and his parishioners'' faith, but he did not share it himself. "Though speaking of which, what of your friend?"

Nathaniel sighed. "I pray that God opens Brother Joshua's eyes before it is too late. He always had a soft spot for children, and doesn't always see the dangers of corruption."

"Well, that's too bad," Gendou said as he stood up and headed for the door. "In the meantime, I've got those country people lined up at my door demanding some kind of explanation, like it was my fault!"

"God go with you, Gendou," Nathaniel said. "Though, ah, by the by…"

"Hmmm?"

"Back during that ruckus, did you by any chance notice one of the orphans in particular? Specifically, a small girl with short silver hair?"

Gendou frowned. "Ah, no, most of my attention was on that…that _woman._ Why?"

"No reason," Nathaniel said. "No reason at all."


	6. Dangers From the Dark

Dangers From the Dark

Satoko picked up another letter, sliced open the envelope with her brass letter-opener, and took it out. Then, after taking a moment to emotionally brace herself, she scanned its first few sentences.

Her mouth, already set in a straight line, thinned out even further. Another condemnation. She set the letter in the trash pile.

Three days had passed since that disaster at the market, and the aftereffects were still being felt. Most of the children who had been hurt (which was most of them) were still nursing their wounds. Noba was recovering, but slowly. He had to remain in bed most of the time, as moving around too quickly gave him dizzy spells. Rumia and Kohta were a mess of bruises from the beating they had taken. Keiichi and Shinji’s noses had both swollen right up. And the list went on.

And that was just the physical hurts. The children were scared and they were angry. Most still carried some lingering traumas from whatever had happened to their families; even those who had been too young to remember it retained subconscious wounds, while others, like Kana, had their entire psyches altered by what they had suffered, perhaps irreparably. That much Satoko had been more than prepared to deal with. But having other Humans turn on them, the very ones that were supposed to support and protect them?

Satoko quite frankly didn’t even know how to begin to deal with that.

Oh, she was trying; they all were, she and the rest of her helpers. It seemed that every interaction with the children lately was to assure and reassure them that no, they were not to blame for what had happened, that there was nothing wrong with them, that the blame was solely upon stupid people, that this would all blow over eventually and everything would be fine.

Sometimes, as she parroted that last part over and over, Satoko could almost allow herself to believe it.

Curiously, the one that seemed to be having the easiest time of comforting the children was Mokou. Satoko was still deeply displeased with how she had handled the fight, but there was something about her blunt nature and rough demeanor that the kids found encouraging. At least when she told them that she would be able to protect them if anyone came after them, she sounded like she meant it.

Unfortunately, Mokou might not be around much longer, as the more Satoko thought of it, the more she was convinced that their cook with a mysterious past might be more useful elsewhere.

Satoko took a deep breath. Then she picked up the next letter.

The messages had been arriving en masse ever since the fight, and their contents fell into two competing camps. Many were very encouraging: messages of support, of condemnation of Skinner and Sonozika’s rhetoric, of expressing disbelief of the youkai-tainted rumors, of promising to provide whatever aid and supplies they needed, and how they were just so outraged that those animals would attack children that were both helpless and parentless like that.

Those messages were fortunately in the majority, and every one made Satoko feel just a little better. She made a mental note to display them someplace where the kids could see. They needed to hear those words of support even more than she did.

Unfortunately, there were more than a few of the other kind, letters that full of bile and hate. Satoko just didn’t understand people who thought like that. What exactly were they so scared of that would drive them to hate helpless children so much?

Fortunately, this was one of the good ones, coming from the Southern Road Village, this one openly condemning the net of paranoid superstition that had descended upon the center of Human civilization and pledging to provide anything that the orphanage needed now that they weren’t allow into the market. There was also a very bewildered inquiry as to exactly why so many people in the Human Village had become so stupid. They weren’t alone, as Satoko had received many similar questions from their other supporters. It seemed that everyone either simply accepted that the children were dangerous and deserved whatever happened to them or was completely and utterly baffled by the sheer stupidity of that line of thinking.

Satoko wished that she had answers for them, but no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t come up with an explanation. Paranoia over youkai was nothing new to Humans; in fact, it was part of a regular cycle that seemed to come around every other generation or so. But this was the first time that paranoia had grown to include children that had lost their families to youkai attacks! No matter how one spun it, it made no sense!

Then Satoko paused. A troubling thought had just occurred to her.

All of that talk about the children being somehow cursed just because most of them had lost their families to youkai attacks was utter nonsense, but what if it had originated from a place of truth?

What if someone had found out about Keine?

Keine was honestly a total sweetheart, and if she did tend to get into trouble a lot along with her friends, it only stood to show that she was also a perfectly normal kid as well. However, the fact that she was half-youkai would understandably make a lot of people nervous, especially considering what Satoko had been told about how she had been conceived. To tell the truth, Satoko herself had been reluctant to take the girl in. What if her monstrous excuse for a father’s nature turned out to be hereditary? What if she grew up to be a monster? While she was in no way to blame for her father’s actions, Satoko had not wanted to risk the safety and wellbeing of the other children under her care to find out.

Fortunately, that proved not to be the case, and Keine turned out to be a lovely and intelligent young girl, if at times a bit mischievous, for which Satoko blamed (and thanked) Rumia Yagami and Kohta Momoi. But her youkai parentage would still likely cause alarm if anyone knew. Aside from her two closest friends, not even the other children knew.

Keine hadn’t been singled out during the fight, so it stood to reason that her secret was still uncovered, at least in part. But it was also possible that some details had leaked, that it had somehow gotten out that one of the kids was of youkai descent, even if it wasn’t known exactly who it was.

Satoko glanced over to the pile of positive letters. As much as she appreciated all the words and promises of support, with how everything was going she wasn’t sure how much longer she could count on it. Being banned from both of the major markets was a blow. Sure, many of the farms had pledged to keep them supplied with food, but it wasn’t just food that they needed. Joshua needed supplies to keep up with the house’s repairs, Shion and Haruhi needed materials for the clothing, the children still needed things like medicine, craft supplies, entertainments, and a few dozen other necessities that they could no longer purchase. Plus, while she did not doubt that the support they were getting was genuine, how long could they count on it to last? If those lies continued to spread, then even their most adamant supporters would soon feel pressure from their friends, families, and neighbors to leave the children to their own devices.

Though Satoko still didn’t want to entertain Mokou’s suggestion of preparing the kids for actual violence, there was value in some of her ideas. They already had a small vegetable garden. It was perhaps time to expand that into something larger that could be fallen back on when the food from the outside stopped coming in. Maybe they could get a few animals as well. As for other supplies, well, that was something of a bigger problem. Nothing insurmountable, but they could be expected to have some tough seasons ahead of them until solutions were found.

Sighing, Satoko slumped forward with a palm pressed against her forehead. Maybe she ought to move the orphanage after all. Not to the Human Village, but…somewhere else. Like to one of the more advanced youkai settlements. Like the Tengu, for example. The Tengu were certainly, well, eccentric, but they at least weren’t murderous or deliberately cruel.

It scared her that she was honestly considering this.

How had this happened? Sure, she had had issues with the other Humans in the past, with complaints about resources and manpower given over to their protection, but never open hostility like this. In fact, according to the stories she had heard from her mother and grandmother, the times in which youkai paranoia was at its highest were when the Human Village was at its most helpful, as they viewed the orphans as proof of the youkai’s evil natures and thus as victims to be protected. And they had never, ever once even entertained the thought that the children might be as dangerous as the youkai themselves. It was sheer lunacy!

As Satoko sat there brooding over the situation, she heard a loud thump come from the hallway outside her door.

She stiffed. Then she quieted her breathing and listened. Maybe it was just the old house settling, or maybe some animal had gotten onto the roof.

Another thump, followed by footsteps. No, someone walking the halls.

But who? It was far past the children’s bedtime, and she knew what the quiet scurrying of one of them getting up to use the restroom or a drink of water sounded like. These sounded heavier and more erratic, like someone was searching for something.

Satoko rose from her chair and carefully went over to the door. She opened it just a crack and peered out.

There was someone in the hallway all right, someone walking away from her room. The way they were walking was odd, a sort of uneven stagger while they grasped this way and that with their hands, like they were drunk or stunned by a blow to the head.

An intruder? Maybe even a youkai or some other wicked spirit. There were many demons that wandered the forests, though how one of them had gotten past the wall of charms that surrounded their land she couldn’t fathom. Regardless, she was now thinking that Mokou had been right, that there really was some kind of deep-seated conspiracy against them.

Then Satoko was struck by a terrible thought. Wards and charms worked great against youkai, fairies, demons, and the like, but they would do nothing against Humans. And now Humans were what they had to fear.

Then the figure stopped in the middle of the hall, and though their features were hard to make out in the dark, Satoko finally recognized enough of their silhouette to realize who it was.

Now confused rather than scared, Satoko opened the door and stepped out. “Nob?” she said.

Noba didn’t respond. He just stood in place.

“Noba, what’s wrong?” Satoko said as she approached the boy. “You’re still hurt! You should be in bed.”

“Coming,” he muttered without turning toward her. “They’re coming. All of them. They’re coming. Leaving tonight. Black house burning in the moonlight.”

Uh-oh, it sounded like he was sleepwalking. That happened from time to time, especially with the more traumatized kids. However, Noba had never been one of them.

“We all fall down,” he said as he finally turned toward her. His eyes were wide open but weren’t focused on anything. He just stared right past her, as if seeing something in the distance through the house walls. “Into the fire. Playing with fire, playing with…”

“Noba,” Satoko said as she gently gave his shoulder a shake. “Wake up!” Noba didn’t react at first, so Satoko gave his shoulder a harder shake.

This time it worked. Noba jerked in surprise, his eyes widening further. “Ah!” he said as he jerked back away from her. “Get away, get away!”

“Noba, it’s okay, it’s just me!” Satoko said soothingly.

The boy had crouched down into a ball, arms covering his head. “No, don’t! Stop! Don’t hit me anymore, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts…”

“Noba, it’s me!” Satoko said. “It’s just me. You’re okay. You were just having a bad dream.”

Noba paused. Then he cautiously looked out from between his arMiss “Miss Satoko?” he said breathlessly.

Satoko knelt down in front of him. “It’s okay,” she said. “You’re not in danger. It was just a bad dream.”

“I…” Noba slowly lowered his arms and looked around. “How? Why am I, uh…”

“You were sleepwalking,” Satoko told him. “That’s all that happened. You had a bad dream and started sleepwalking.”

“A bad dream?” Noba swallowed. “But it…it was…the house was on fire and people were hitting us and I, uh, I…”

“Shhh, it’s okay,” Satoko soothed. She gently took the terrified boy and drew him into her arMiss “You’re safe now. It was just a dream.”

At sixteen summers and nearing his seventh, Noba was the eldest of the children in the orphanage, and as such he had a young man’s aversion to showing any sort of emotional vulnerability. But tonight he didn’t resist at all and held onto her tightly.

“It’s okay, _you’re_ okay,” Satoko said as she stroked the boy’s hair. “It was just a dream. You’re safe here.”

“But…But they’re out there, they’re out there all around. They know where they are, they know where we are…”

The scary thing was, this wasn’t the first time Satoko had heard terrified children speaking words to that effect after waking from a nightmare. However, this was the first time that they didn’t refer to youkai.

“They can’t get you,” Satoko said, though in her heart she wondered how true that was. “You’re safe here. We won’t let them get you. _I_ won’t let them get you.”

Noba’s shaking was starting slow, and his breathing was evening out. “But…But…” Then he sighed. “Okay. Okay.”

“Would you like something from the kitchen?” Satoko said. “Some warm wine, maybe?”

Noba shook his head. “No. No, I just…I just…feel so tired.”

“All right. Come on.”

Taking him by the hand, Satoko led Noba back to the boy’s dorm. “But…But why did they do that?” Noba muttered as he rubbed his head. “Why did they come for us like that?”

Satoko opened the door. “It was a dream, Noba,” she reminded him. “A dream.”

Noba looked at her in confusion. “Then why does my head still hurt?” he said before going back in. To this, Satoko had no answer.

As she shut the door, Satoko came to a decision. She couldn’t allow this to happen again. They needed to know what was happening to them.

She walked through the halls toward one door in particular. She lifted her hand, hesitated for a moment, and knocked.

Though no one answered, she heard a sudden movement from within, like someone sitting up abruptly.

She knocked again. “Mokou?” she called through the door. “It’s me. Can we talk?”

At first there was silence, then she heard Mokou say, “All right, just give a moment here.”

Satoko waited. From beyond the door she heard the sound of shuffling about. Then the door opened.

Mokou warily looked down at her. She was wearing her pants and shirt, but the suspenders weren’t drawn up and her shirt was unbuttoned, no doubt from having been hastily thrown on.

“What’s up?” Mokou said. “Something happen?”

Satoko took a deep breath. “I’m sorry to have woken you, but I have something I need to ask of you.”

Mokou quirked an eyebrow. She leaned out to glance from one end of the hall to the next. Then she stood aside to invite Satoko in.

Despite only being at the Children’s Home for a couple years, Mokou had quickly become very popular among the children, and was often the recipient of little gifts and tokens of admiration. And they were all on display in her room, from pressed flowers to pretty rocks to hand drawn pictures and earnestly awkward letters. There were no other decorations however, no mementos of her previous life or trinkets picked up from other places.

“Okay, so what do you need me to do?” Mokou said. “Does it involve any, uh…” She drew a slender finger across her own throat.

“No!” Satoko said hastily “Nothing like that.” Then she sighed. “But I was thinking about our talk earlier, and while I still don’t approve of how you reacted to that fight, you did have a point. Something is at work, something that threatens our children. And we need to know what it is.”

“Ah, I get it,” Mokou said with a nod. “You want me to start poking around, looking up contacts and see if they know anything.”

“Exactly,” Satoko said.

Mokou shrugged. “Yeah, I can do that, no problem. Only thing is, most of the people that I’d have to talk to don’t exactly come from around here. Actually, a lot of them live pretty far out, and a few aren’t exactly stationary. Which mean it might take some time to hunt them down.”

“Some time?” Satoko said, her heartrate rising. She didn’t like the thought of Mokou being gone for too long. “Even if you fly?”

“Look, flying from one end of Gensokyo to the other might only take a day or so, but this isn’t a case of going from Point A to Point B. I don’t even know where some of these people are right now. They tend to just go where they want without notice."

“Oh,” Satoko said.

“But I will make a point of checking in between visits,” Mokou added as she started buttoning up her shirt. “And hopefully I won’t have to look up too many names before I get things figured out.”

Satoko frowned as Mokou slipped her shirt tails into her pants and pulled up her suspenders. “Um, wait, what are you doing?”

Mokou, who had just opened a drawer in his cabinet, looked at her in surprise. “Huh?”

“Why are you getting dressed? It’s the middle of the night!”

Mokou’s face twisted up in confusion. “So? I don’t know how long this’ll take. No time to lose!” She pulled out a weatherworn leather bag and slipped it over her shoulder.

“That doesn’t mean you need to leave right now! Wouldn’t it make sense for you to wait until morning, when you’re fully rested.

“I am,” Mokou said. “Satoko, trust me, I’m fine. And the quicker I do this, the better.”

Satoko was about to argue further, but then thought better of it. “Okay,” she said. “Good luck. And thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. Oh, uh, while I’m gone, you’ll have to handle the cooking. So-”

“Mokou, we used to cook for ourselves before you came, remember?” Satoko said. “We’ll be fine.”

Mokou thought for a moment. Then she nodded. “Yeah, okay. Good point. Still, don’t drop your guard. If something seems even a little bit wrong, get everyone inside and hide, and only call for help from people you absolutely know you can trust.”

Satoko swallowed. “All right. But please, hurry back as soon as you can. And don’t bring anything worse with you.”

…

_The next day…_

Joshua lifted his hand, hesitated for half a second, and then rapped his knuckles against Haruhi’s door.

“Haruhi?” he called through the door. “It’s Joshua.”

There was no answer.

Swallowing, Joshua pressed on. “Um, I just wanted to check up on you to see how you were doing. You know, we haven’t seen much of you for the last couple of days, and, uh, I just wanted to see if you were all right.”

Still no answer.

“Well, uh, I know I said this already, but I-I know you must still be hurting over what happened. And, uh, I just wanted you to know th-that it’s perfectly okay to feel like that, and that that should never have happened. But, you know, you don’t have to face it alone. We’re here for you.”

And there still was no answer.

Joshua took a deep breath and said, “Well, uh, Haruna, Shion, and I were going to have an evening tea on the front porch, and you’re more than welcome to join us. If you want to, I mean. But if you’d rather be by yourself for a while longer, then that’s fine too. Just thought I’d mention it.”

He stood next to the shut and locked door for a moment longer, frantically searching his brain for anything else he could say that wouldn’t accidentally come off as obnoxious. When he couldn’t find anything, he said, “Well, uh, even if you don’t want to come out, just know that we’re thinking about you, and that we care about you. And…that’s all I wanted to say, I guess.”

He left the door and headed toward the stairs, his mind spinning with so many swirling thoughts and emotions.

He didn’t know what to do. He had been with the Children’s Home for several years and had gotten quite good at comforting and consoling the kids through the various struggles and hardships that faced them, but this was completely outside his wheelhouse. Even back when he had done work with his old church back in Philadelphia, when he spoken to all sorts of lost and hurting souls, he had never encountered something like a bright young woman who had grown up without a family and just wanted to help out those who were like her suddenly have her entire society turn on and physically assault her on the basis of a powerful lie. Joshua wanted to help her; of course he did! But he didn’t know if it was better to keep trying to get her to open up or to give Haruhi her space. He didn’t know if either path would help or make things worse. And given his connections to the man responsible and how that man was twisting the very faith that Joshua himself still held, he didn’t know if his help was even wanted.

Though he still had no idea if his God had any jurisdiction in Gensokyo at all, he still whispered a small prayer for Haruhi under his breath.

The two remaining caretakers, Haruna Ishii and Shion Takagi, were already sitting together on the front porch. Haruna, who was the eldest of the caretakers, having worked there before Satoko had even been born, was seated on the worn wooden bench that was next to the door, while Shion, a tall and handsome woman with long black hair that was starting to turn silver, was leaning up against one of the posts that supported the roof. Like Haruhi, she was also a former ward of the Children’s Home, though from a couple generations earlier, having lost her family to starvation during an especially long winter. As such, she and Satoko had practically grown up together, which was part of her reason for deciding to stay.

Joshua nodded to the two of them and carefully shut the heavy door behind him. “Good evening. Sorry to keep you two waiting.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Shion said. “Is Haruhi coming?”

“No. She’s still, well…”

“You don’t have to say it,” Haruna said, her rough face twisting up in disgust. Some of the children referred to her as a pitbull behind her back, and while Joshua was quick to put a stop to any kind of disparaging nicknames, he had to admit that she strongly resembled one in that moment, mainly in how ready she looked to commit egregious acts of violence to protect someone she cared about. “Poor kid. Still can’t believe those animals did that to her, to _them.”_

“Has it ever been like this?” Joshua said. “I mean, I haven’t been here nearly as long as either one of you, but things were already getting tense when I showed up.”

“Not in the slightest,” Haruna said. “Everyone, from the Human Villages to those on the outskirts, always did everything they could to take care of this. This is new.”

“Well, at least we know the cause,” Shion said, shooting Joshua a sidelong look.

Joshua had been expecting that. Sighing, he pulled over a nearby wicker chair and sat down as well. “Let me guess: Skinner?”

“Josh, we don’t mean to suggest that you had anything to do with what’s going on…” Shion said.

“But you were friends with the guy,” Haruna continued. “And he’s using his religion to justify everything that he’s pulling, a religion you’re a part of. Now, we’ve never made an issue of it, and you usually keep your beliefs to yourself, but…”

“It’s okay, I get it,” Joshua said, perhaps a bit more shortly than he had wanted. He didn’t mean to get snappish, but even after all this time he often found himself struggling to rectify his faith with everything that went on in the world that had become his home. And with Skinner doing what he was doing, well, it was hard not to get defensive about it.

So he sighed and said, “Well, to answer the first question you no doubt have for me, yes: Skinner and I did used to be friends. Kind of.”

Haruna frowned. “Kind of?”

“We were part of the same church, and he’d show up to the Bible Study I hosted at my place. We’d talk privately at times, but we were never really close, at least not until we became trapped in Gensokyo.”

“Bible what?”

“Uh…it’s like a religious gathering at someone’s house to talk about…scripture. Sort of a group discussion than just listening to the pastor.”

This explanation got Joshua blank stares from the other two. He sighed. No matter how many times he tried to explain it, his Gensokyian friends had never really wrapped their heads around worshipping someone they couldn’t just go talk to in person. Honestly, sometimes he envied them in that.

Joshua quickly moved past that part. “Anyway, he always had…problems, things like anger issues and mood swings. I think he relied on his faith as a stabilizing force, and that gave him a very, um, black and white view of things. He, uh, never really had much use for nuance and…” Realizing that he was starting to go off on a tangent, Joshua returned to the point. “Um, anyway, he had made a pretty public scene after church one day. I can’t really remember what it was about, but I think he had blown up at someone over something their daughter was doing that wasn’t even that bad, and I had to step between them and get them separated.” He shook his head. “He was already on pretty thin ice with the rest of the congregation, so I thought that I’d better try to talk some sense into him. I got him out of the building, offered to take him to lunch to try one last time to get through to him, but when the bus we were taking went through a tunnel…” He shrugged. “Well, it came out into Gensokyo.”

“A…A bus?” Haruna said.

Joshua dismissively waved his hand. “It’s, uh, a kind of public transport. A vehicle.”

“Oh, those weird metal machines you told us about, like what the Kappa screw around with.”

“Exactly. Anyway, to make a long story short, we did become, um, actual friends after that. I mean, we were literally the only people either of us even knew. Even the other people on the bus were strangers until then.” He shrugged. “Anyway, he…never really took very well to this country. Every fairy had to be a demon in disguise…and by that I mean a different kind of demon then what lives in Makai…every spell a sign of evil influence. His mood swings just kept getting worse and worse. I kept trying to get him to calm down, to try to see things differently, but he just refused. And when I told him that I felt like the Lord was telling me to go spend the rest of my life helping out here, well, he took it…badly.”

Badly was an understatement. In fact, Joshua had been convinced that Skinner was going to attack him then and there. His reaction and the things he had said to Joshua had gone a long way to making Joshua no longer think of him as a friend. And ever since they had parted ways, Skinner just seemed to get more unhinged. On occasion they would see each other, and Joshua always made an effort to be polite, but while Skinner no longer ranted and raved at him, he just got weirder with every meeting.

“Anyway, I haven’t really kept in contact with him since then. And as you can see, he’s…gotten really, really bad.”

There was a pause, and then Shion sighed and said, “Look, Josh. You can’t blame yourself for how he turned out. I mean, I was thinking it was something to do with your religion, but now you’re saying he was always kind of like this, so that’s on him.”

“I know,” Joshua said. “But I just keep thinking: maybe I should have stayed with him. Maybe if I had been there for him, he wouldn’t have gone off the deep end like he did.”

“You’re not his minder, you know.”

“Minder. Right. ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’” Joshua murmured, mostly to himself. Though to be fair, it wasn’t as if he had ambushed Skinner and beat him to death in a field. “Maybe I should have tried harder to get him to go with me. At least I would’ve been able to keep an eye on him.”

Haruna wrinkled her nose. “Hell no. You’re fine, but I sure as hell wouldn’t want to put up with him all the time.”

“Fair enough. But that still leaves the question of…”

Then the door handle turned, and Joshua stopped talking.

The heavy door creaked open, and Haruhi peeked out.

“Um, I’m sorry,” she said hesitantly. “I’m not, er, interrupting anything, am I?”

“Not at all,” Shion said as she stood. “Are you okay?”

“I…” Haruhi stepped outside and gently closed the door behind her. “Well, no. No, I’m not. But…” He face scrunched up, and her already wet eyes moistened further. “I don’t really…want to be alone right now, so…”

Joshua got up and pulled another one of the chair around. “Well, you are of course more than welcome.”

“Thanks,” she said. “Thank you.”

The question of Skinner remained unmentioned for the rest of the evening, though it weighed heavily on Joshua’s mind. He just hoped that whoever Mokou had gone to find, they would have the answers she sought.

…

_At that moment…_

Though her life in the Children’s Home meant that she had neglected many of the skills she had built up in her long life, Mokou was pleased to find that they had not deserted her through lack of use, specifically the ones related to the tracking, locating, and stalking of another person through a dark and dangerous wood.

She was in the Forest of Magic, which had never been a regular destination of hers, though she knew it well enough, if anyone could be said to “know” the Forest of Magic, following a certain someone as they made their way through the woods’ twisted and often nearly invisible paths. Everything was coming back to her, and quickly: from the noting of small evidences of her quarry’s passage to noticing minute changes in the air, from stealing along silent and catlike through the gnarled web of interwoven branches to taking note of any sign of other hunters in the area that might be stalking her in turn. Her ears caught every sound and immediately knew what made it, which direction it came from, and how far away it was. Her nose sifted through the stifling scent of rot and decay that permeated every square meter of the forest to filter out trace elements of Human sweat and skin particles.

All of her senses told her the same thing: that her quarry was close, and she hadn’t noticed Mokou stalking her yet.

Despite the importance of her hunt, Mokou found herself grinning to herself in the dark. She had missed this, she really had. Granted, what followed after was usually violent and painful, but this part was always fun. Not fun enough to return to her old life, but it was nice to stretch those unused muscles of hers.

She slunk along, as silent as a whisper and as sure as an arrow, her weight evenly distributed as her long and nimble fingers felt for the strongest branches. Up ahead, she could hear the sound of leaves crunching beneath bare feet. Her quarry was going on foot then, probably on a hunt of her own.

And there she was. Mokou spied her crouching in the middle of a junction, where four winding paths met. It was a woman with dark hair tied into two pigtails and a squarish face. She was just below medium height, a little on the plump side, and dressed in a worn red and white outfit. In one hand she was holding a stick tied with several white ribbons, while the other was rubbing her chin in contemplation.

Also, her back was to Mokou, and she had not given any indication of knowing that she was being watching.

Her grin growing, Mokou levitated down from the tree and slowly drifted over the mess of long-dead leaves and fungi that coated the forest floor. She came closer and closer to the woman, hands held to her sides, fingers open and ready.

Then, when she got about half a meter away, the woman sighed and said, “No.”

Mokou froze. Then her shoulders slumped and she let herself drop down onto her feet. “Okay, how long did you know I was there?” she demanded.

“Since you dropped out of the tree.” The woman rose and turned to face her. “Would’ve blasted you to bit right then and there if I didn’t recognize you a second later.” She looked Mokou up and down. “Well, well, Fujiwara no Mokou. Haven’t heard from you in a hot minute.”

“Really? It’s only been like seven years.”

Miko Hakurei sighed. “Yeah, you would find that short. What do you want? I’m busy.”

“So I see. What’s up? Mima up to her old tricks?”

Miko shook her head. “No, not for almost a decade now. But something’s apparently been raiding farms near the border, so I figured I’d better step in to knock some sense into them.”

Miko Hakurei was the latest in the Hakurei family line, whose roots went all the way back to the founding of Gensokyo. They were the designated protectors of the country, or at least the mortal part, and lived and watched over the Hakurei Shrine, which was said to contain the only consistent gateway between Gensokyo and the Outside World. If something dark and dangerous were to rise in the Wilds to threaten humanity, then the Hakurei shrine maidens put a stop to it. If something weird was going on that was likely to endanger the country, then they figured out what was up, and then they put a stop to it. If some dastardly villain enacted some mad scheme for one reason or another, then they would have to account for the current Hakurei shrine maiden in their plans, lest she show up and put a stop to things. Miko herself had saved the country from no fewer than four cataclysmic disasters and a slew of minor incidents.

Though to be truthful, most of their time tended to be spent dealing with common youkai mischief and acting as more of pest control when fairies overstepped their bounds. Plus, it tended to be kind of a thankless jobs, with Humans never really appreciating all that they did to protect them and neglecting to give them any kind of thanks. But while Mokou had never needed a Hakurei’s help, she did appreciate what they did for those who did. Plus, she liked Miko, who was one of the tougher specimens to wear the red-and-white. The two had even worked together to resolve a handful of incidents in the past.

“Well, as it so happens I’m also looking up trouble coming from an ugly old forest,” Mokou said. “Specifically, the Youkai Forest.”

Miko frowned. “Why? I heard you went straight, working for the Aoki Yume’s Children’s Home of all things.” She shook her head. “I thought Yukari was fucking with me when she told me. Never would have thought that you would trade in all that murder for cooking for kids. I mean, I’m not complaining. Means fewer messes to clean up in the Bamboo Forest, but it’s still unexpected.”

“Yeah, I am. Needed a lifestyle change, and that one worked out. And about two days ago, nearly the whole of the farmer’s market almost beat those kids to death.”

There was a pause, and then Miko said in a low and dangerous tone, “What?”

Miko was usually up to date with the various goings and comings of youkai, fairies, and other supernatural creatures, but tended to be behind the times when it came to her own species. So Mokou filled her in on the brawl in the market, what had led up to it, and her suspicions about Nathaniel Skinner and his rising influence in the Human Village.

“Well now, that is some fucked up shit,” Miko groused. “Attacking kids of all things, and orphans at that.”

“Oh, trust me, I know,” Mokou said. “I mean, my soul’s plenty stained, but even at my worst I would never had even been tempted to do something like that.”

“Yeah, the fact that we still have Sonozikas running things is proof of that.”

“You too? Gods, Tewi Inaba was giving me shit about that same thing the other day.”

“I don’t doubt it. What’s that have to do with me though? They like me even less than you, and sure as hell won’t listen to anything I tell them. And I know about that Skinner prick of course, but I haven’t really been keeping tabs on him. The Human Village is kind of outside my jurisdiction, you know?”

“You do?” Mokou frowned. “What have you heard about him?”

Miko shrugged. “Probably what you already know. He was part of a group of Outsiders that got caught a few years back. Last I heard, most of them settled down in the Human Village and he went and started the first Christian church in Gensokyo. Thought that would flame out in a couple months, but he’s kept it going somehow.”

That much Mokou knew already, but while she had many questions about that whole business, Skinner wasn’t the reason she had hunted Miko down. After all, Miko was often kind of behind the times on Human business.

“Okay, but it’s not really him I need to ask you about. See, Tewi told me that there’s some weird shit going down in the Youkai Forest, and that it might be related to whatever’s going on in the Human Village. You hear anything about that?”

Miko sighed. “I should’ve guessed.”

Mokou’s ears pricked up at that. “So you have heard something?”

“Of course I have! Hell, I spent most of last week rooting through that damn forest trying to root out the source!”

“Source of what? What’s going on?”

“Wish I could tell you,” Miko said. “I knocked some heads together but found zilch. But I heard pretty much the same thing you did, that something’s stirring up the youkai there for whatever reason.” She shrugged. “Well, things were weird and creepy, but they’re always weird and creepy.”

Damn it. “And you couldn’t find any connection to the Human Village?”

“That’s the first I’ve heard of any connection to that. Now you’ve given me something else to worry about.”

“Sorry.”

Miko rubbed her chin as she thought. “You know, come to think of it, there was something…”

“Yes?”

“Understand, this isn’t anything recent, but I seem to recall some buzz from…oh, I’m going to say about fourteen or so years ago. It had to be a few years after Skinner and his friends showed up. From what I recall, they didn’t really make any trouble right after they popped up in Gensokyo, or at least no more than most Outsiders that get stuck here. But anyway, as I recall, he was part of a group of idiots that went into the Youkai Forest for whatever reason, and I had to be the ones to pull them out again, or at least the ones that were still alive.”

Well now, that sounded like a solid lead! “What happened?” Mokou asked. “What do you remember?”

Miko spread her hands. “Look, it was a long time ago…or at least a long time for _me,_ and it was a fairly routine rescue, so I don’t remember much other than like two of them got eaten and a third just straight up vanished. I chased off the youkai that were attacking them, let them have an earful about being stupid, and led them back.”

“And Skinner?”

“He was…” Miko’s brow furrowed as she struggled to recall. “I didn’t actually find _him._ He had gotten separated from the rest of the group and wasn’t with them when I found them. Everyone had already written him off as one of the casualties, but right as we were leaving the forest, he suddenly came staggering out of nowhere. Almost took his head off out of reflex.”

“Kind of wish you had.”

“Well, hindsight’s a bitch,” Miko said. “Anyway, he was…kind of out of it. Delirious. Ranting about…oh, I don’t remember. Something about eyes and hands. I figured he had gotten his brain boiled by some evil spirit and just handed him off to the Human Village to deal with and forgot about the whole thing until now.”

Mokou was pleased. That was more solid a lead than she had been expecting to get. “Well, that sounds like a good place to start. Thanks, Miko.”

“Don’t mention it. And hey, if you uncover anything that should be my business, let me know.”

“You’ll be the first.” Mokou nodded at the shrine maiden and turned to go.

Before she left, Miko called out, “Oh, and Mokou?”

Mokou paused. Then she looked over her shoulder back at Miko.

“Look, I don’t know how genuine your little change of heart is, but I do know the sort of things that tend to happen around you,” Miko said. “So let me say this plain: it had better be real and stay real. For those kids’ sakes.”

There was no mistaking the warning in her voice and eyes. And if she had been nearly anyone else, Mokou might have been tempted to laugh in her face. In appearance, Miko seemed to be just edging into her early thirties, but the Hakureis didn’t show their age like most Humans, so she was quite a bit older than that. However, while Mokou seemed to be in her late teens or early twenties, she was the other woman’s elder by a significant amount, and outclassed her in power and ability by a ludicrous percentage. What, exactly, was Miko going to do about anything?

She didn’t laugh though, in part because of the genuine respect she had for the other woman, and in part because Miko’s concerns mirrored her own. That was the main motivation for her little fact-finding mission, after all. To keep that kind of violence from finding its way to their doorstep.

Mokou took a deep breath and said, “Miko, believe me: if that kind of shit starts happening to them, then I sure as hell won’t be the cause. Or at least, it won’t be me that started it.” Then she thought for a moment and added, “Though, hey, you know how you said that this sort of bullshit is outside of your jurisdiction?”

“What of it?”

“If something inside the Youkai Forest is involved, then it just might be your business after all. And even if it isn’t, maybe you ought to look into it before it becomes your business.”

Miko thought on that. Then she nodded. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

“Good. Hope we don’t have to hear from each other for a long time.” With that, Mokou vanished back into the shadows of the Forest of Magic, leaving the aging shrine maiden to her business.

…

_The day after that…_

“We should do something about this.”

Rumia, who was just about to put the small, sharp blade of the knife she was holding to the bark of a stick, paused at that. She glanced over to Kohta, who was _supposed_ to be tying the sticks she had debarked together, but was instead spinning them between his fingers as he sat and sulked.

“I mean, it only makes sense, right?” Kohta continued. “There’s so many of them, and only a few of us, and only Miss Mokou actually knows how to fight. And she can’t be everywhere at once. So we should be learning how to fight!”

Rumia sighed and slid her knife down, peeling off a long strip of bark. “Yeah, brilliant plan. Except for the part that all those assholes probably know how to fight too, so what good would _that_ do? Also, get to work. I’m not skinning these things just so you can fidget with them.”

Kohta did so, carefully binding the sticks together with white thread from a spool. “It’s better than sitting around doing nothing! They’re come for us sooner or later, so we need to be ready!”

Keine, who was working on sheets of paper with a pair of scissors, looked stricken. “You really think that’ll happen?” she said. “I mean, not just kick us out and not let us come back, but actually come here after us?”

The three of them were in the orphanage’s big, yellow-painted playroom, working together on their little model circus, like they usually did when they had some downtime. Since they had been unable to purchase a genuine model elephant like they had planned, they instead were working to make one from their usual materials. Unfortunately, since elephants were weirdly shaped with their big, floppy noses and sheet-like ears, the end result wasn’t shaping out as well as they would have hoped, but they were making do.

 _Well, at least we still have our money,_ Rumia thought to herself. Then she scowl. _For all the good that’ll do us. We can’t even spend it anymore!_

“Of _course_ they will!” Kohta hissed at Keine. “Just watch! Sooner or later that asshole in the brown hat is gonna convince all those village idiots that we’re secretly demons scheming to steal their kids or something stupid like that!”

“Like we’d want any of those little sneaks living with us,” Rumia said.

“They probably think we’ll drink their blood or something.”

Rumia gagged. “Ew. _Why?”_

“Because they’re _idiots!”_

As she said that, she shoved down too hard on the stick she was shaving, and the knife sliced down to slash its way into her hand.

Rumia yelped as hot pain erupted over her palm. She dropped the knife and clutched at her hand as blood welled up.

“Ah! Damn it!”

Her friends were immediately at her side. “Whoa, ouch! Are you okay?” Kohta said.

“Of course I am! It just stings, is all.”

“Well, here,” Keine said as she picked up a cloth and handed it to Rumia. “Press that to the cut, try to stop the bleeding.”

Then the door to the playroom opened, and the three of them shut up immediately.

It was Melissa and Kana. The two of them walked in and noticed Rumia, Kohta, and Keine huddled together, treating Rumia’s palm.

“Oh,” Melissa said. “What, uh, ha-a-happen?”

Rumia sighed. She held up the knife. “I cut myself, okay?”

“That’s odd,” Kana remarked. “Was it in service for one of your plans, or perhaps to acquire blood needed for some kind of magic ritual?”

Rumia stared at her. “No, it was an accident. I was shaving a stick and the knife slipped.”

Melissa stared blankly at them. Realizing that she probably hadn’t caught most of the explanation, Rumia sighed and held up her half-shaved stick, the knife, and mimed what had happened.

“Oh,” Melissa said. “Ouch.”

“Ah, that is disappointing,” Kana said.

“What, that I didn’t cut myself deeper?” Rumia said grumpily.

“No. But blood rituals are said to be quite potent. If you were to conjure one for our protection, then we needn’t worry about being punched by strange, angry people. Speaking of which, may I borrow your knife?”

“I….what?” Kohta sputtered. “Okay, first of all…actually, I don’t know which part of that to react to first.”

“Um, Kana?” Keine said. “You do know we already have a bunch of protective charms and spells set up.”

“Well, yes, but everyone knows that those are fake.”

“Huh?”

“Charms and spells,” Kana repeated. “Paper fairies use them as nests, and they sell them to silly Humans to make others put their nests up for them!”

Rumia, Keine, and Kohta looked at each other. Then, as one, they looked toward Melissa, silently requesting an explanation.

It was up in the air how much of that exchange Melissa actually understood, but apparently she had understood enough, as she merely shrugged. “I do not know,” she said. “I do not know enough about these magics to say.”

“Well, it’s true,” Kana said.

“Right,” Rumia said. “Er, okay, leaving all of that aside, let’s talk about the disturbing part: why do you need my knife again?”

“For a blood ritual,” Kana said promptly.

“Okay…” Rumia said after a beat. “And…what kind of blood ritual?”

“To get this to work.” Kana reached into her pocket to withdraw some kind of contraption made of string, shells, and bone.

Rumia yelped when she recognized it. “Where the _hell_ did you get that?!”

It was the charm that the creepy lady had been trying to sell them at the market, the tiny human skull still hanging in its center.

“From the market,” Kana said. “You remember, you were there, weren’t you?”

“No, yeah, I was, but I mean, _how_ did you get it?”

“Oh, the merchant dropped it by accident when Miss Mokou scared her,” Kana said in a conversational tone as she slipped the charm back into her pocket. “I tried to find her again to give it back, but it seems she had already left. And then Miss Mokou yelled at me to keep up, so I just kept it.”

Kept it. Right. Just about every kid in the orphanage had been turned away from every single merchant’s stall, and Kana had lucked her way into something that was probably worth far more than all of their collected money put together. Rumia did not buy for one minute all that talk about immortality or ensouled poltergeists, but things made from bones usually had some kind of power.

“At any rate, I figured that I might as well see if I can activate its enchantment,” Kana continued. “If we are indeed attacked again, then someone might be killed, so it would be useful if we could all come back as poltergeists. Then nobody would be able to hurt us on account of us not having solid bodies anymore!”

Weird _and_ morbid. “So you stole a charm,” Kohta said. “That some weirdo that was probably just trying to kidnap us said will let you come back as a ghost, and you’re going to try to make it work even though you don’t know how because you think those jackoffs that jumped us might kill us.”

Kana contemplated on that. Then she said, “I think that’s fairly accurate. May I borrow your knife?”

“Uh, no,” Rumia said flatly. If Kana was going to make herself bleed out all over the playroom, then Rumia wasn’t going to be a part of it. “Melissa, are you really letting her go through with this?”

Melissa looked surprised. “Should I not? I thought…magic was true here.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean every stupid spell made up by some random old lady is real. It was probably just a scam!”

“Oh, I don’t think so,” Kana said.

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Rumia groused. “Look, if you’re going to cut yourself apart, could you like do it somewhere else? If you don’t accidentally slit your own throat, then you’ll probably burn the place down.”

“All right,” Kana said. “Have a nice day! I like your little city, by the way. Is that supposed to be a mass execution?”

Rumia, Kohta, and Keine all stared at her, and then at each other. Then they looked down at their makeshift circus. No matter how Rumia looked it at, she couldn’t understand how Kana got “mass execution” from the arrangement.

“No,” Rumia said at last. “It’s not.”

“Oh. Well, it kind of looks like one. Bye!”

She left the room, with an increasingly dubious and worried Melissa following. When they were gone, Rumia breathed out and said, “Okay. It’s not just me, right? She is definitely getting weirder.”

“Maybe we’d better tell the grown-ups,” Keine said. “I mean, what if she hurts herself?”

“She already said that she’s planning on cutting herself,” Kohta said. “Getting hurt on purpose is kind of a given now.”

“You know what I mean!”

“At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if she tied up Melissa and sacrificed her,” Rumia said.

The three of them chewed on that mental image for a few moments. Then Kohta said, “Yeah, we’d better tell someone.”

Rumia scowled. “What good would it do? Most grown-ups are stupid and useless.”

“Oh, come on!” Keine protested. “Not all of them. Not ours.”

“I…well, they’re okay, I guess. But they still don’t notice most things.”

“Miss Mokou does. Miss Mokou notices _everything!”_

Rumia threw her hands into the air. “And she’s gone! She’s off to find out why things are so weird, and we have no idea how long that’ll take! For all we know she’s lost in a forest somewhere, or beaten half to death like she was when we found her in the snow!”

…

The two outcasts sat together atop a tall cliff, drinking together as they watched the Sun set over Gensokyo.

In appearance, they couldn’t look more different, aside from both being female. Mokou still looked more-or-less like the young Human woman she had once been: tall, slender, and well-muscled, with a sharp face and long violet hair so pale that it was often mistaken for silver, and she was dressed in the cast-off clothes of some farmer that had donated them to the orphanage years ago, mainly a plain white shirt and a red pair of suspenders. She didn’t even wear shoes.

In contrast, her old…friend (acquaintance? Contact? Occasional opponent? Someone she tended to run into every so often?) was very short, petite, had auburn hair tied into tails, and had two large horns curving out from either side of her head. She wore an extravagant outfit consisting of a sleeveless white blouse, a wide purple skirt, a red ribbon around her neck, black shoes with red bows, and had shackles clasped to her wrists and ankles, each one trailing a broken chain. The chains weren’t intended to imply an escape from captivity, they were simply a common part of fashion for her people, the oni.

Still, there was a sort of kinship between the two of them, one that came from spending so many years wandering Gensoyko with no real home, no real family, not even the company of their own species to fall back on. They were exiles, and had been for similarly long times. Granted, the circumstances between their respective exilings had been different, but there was only so many times one could run into the same person out in the wilderness before some kind of rapport was formed.

Also, Suika Ibuki was very, very drunk, which made her great fun to be around. But what else was new?

“The _You_ kai For _eeeeest_ ,” Suika said, her voice rising and falling on odd syllables like it always did. She nodded solemnly, and took a long swig from the purple gourd of sake that she always carried around with her. “Oh _yeah._ There’s al _ways_ something _going_ on in _the_ Youkai _For_ est.”

“I know,” Mokou said, taking a sip from one of the many glass bottles she had brought with her. Most of them were green, bearing labels that declared them to be from a Tengu winery. However, one was jet-black and had no label. “That’s why I found you. To ask you about-”

“Not _as_ bad as _the_ Forest _of_ Ma _gic_ though,” Suika continued on. She swung her legs back and forth over the cliff and started swaying back in forth in time to some melody only she could hear. “Weir _der_ stuff happens _in_ the For _est_ of Ma _gic_. _Super_ weird shit, almost _al_ ways bad ex _cept_ when _it’s_ fun _ny!”_

“Well, I was just there, and nothing out of the ordinary level of weird was going on. I’m interested in-”

“Or the Bam _boo_ Forest of _the_ Lost!” Suika thrust her gourd out as if raising a toast. “Also very, _very_ bad! I _think.”_

At this, Mokou scowled. “Oh, come on! The Bamboo Forest isn’t that bad, just really confusing if you don’t know your way around.”

“You _sure?_ They say that the _death_ less daughter of _the_ Phoe _nix_ wan _ders_ there, forever sear _ching_ for the _one_ who dis _graced_ her family. If you _find_ her, _she’ll_ ask you _your_ name, and if you _have_ the _same_ _name_ as-”

Mokou smacked the oni upside the back of her head. “Okay, knock it off! One, no she doesn’t, because she’s me, and I don’t live there anymore! And two, that only happened once, when I was drunk and in a bad mood, and they were okay after! Mostly. Anyway, I apologized and did what I could to fix them up, so I don’t see why everyone is still telling that stupid story.”

“Oh.” Tilting her head in confusion, Suika squinted at her through bleary eyes. “Are _you?”_ Then she grinned. “Oh _yeah_ , that’s _riiiight._ Okay, the _Bam_ boo Forest _of_ the Lost is _per_ fectly safe. Ex _cept_ for the rabbits.”

Mokou’s bottle was now empty, so she hurled it into the valley below and used her thumb to pop the cork on the next. “Nah, the rabbits are a pain in the ass, but they’re all right, I guess. But anyway, I’m not talking about them, I’m talking about the Youkai Forest.”

“Right,” Suika nodded. “Right. Lots of _bad_ juju there.”

“Okay, so is there any kind of _new_ bad juju?”

Suika shrugged. “Oh, I _dunno._ I mean, it _could_ be _that_ bloody _ghost_ that rose _up_ not too long ago, _see_ king to _suck_ the breath of _chil_ dren out _through_ their _noses.”_

“That was a fairy prank and it happened seventy-four years ago,” Mokou told her.

“Oh.” Suika frowned as she attempted to concentrate. “Uh, the _Army_ of Angry _Bones?”_

Mokou sighed. “Two hundred and whatever years ago. I’m talking within the last few years. Did anything happen within the last ten years or so?”

“Uh…where?”

“In the Youkai Forest,” Mokou said.

“The Youkai _Forest?”_ Suika’s face scrunched up in bewilderment. “What _about_ it?”

Mokou sighed again. That was the problem with trying get any kind of useful information out of Suika. She tended to go anywhere and everywhere and for whatever reason always seemed to hear every bit of news, rumor, gossip, and any other bit of important information. Unfortunately, as she often forgot where she was in the middle of most conversations, wringing that information back out of her was a nearly impossible task if you didn’t know how to do it.

Fortunately, years ago Mokou had stumbled across a trick that worked. It was sort of cruel, but if she tried to pry the information out the old-fashioned way, she was unlikely to ever get Suika to reach the point.

So, as Suika prattled on, Mokou reached for one of the bottles she had brought. The black bottle.

“I _mean_ , _sure_ , lots of _things_ happen _there,”_ Suika went on. “But if you _want_ something _weird,_ then ha _ha_ , you’re _gon_ na have to nar _row_ it _down_ a whole _bunch_ , because _there_ is so _much_ weird in there that-”

“Hey, Suika!” Mokou said, cutting her off. She held out the bottle to the oni. “I brought some of my special spiced wine along! Want some?”

“Oh, thanks!” Suika took the offered gift, snapped off the throat as easily as if it were a twig, and drained it in one go. “As _I_ was saying-”

She stopped in mid-sentence, and her whole body went completely stiff. Her brown eyes suddenly went very, very wide, while her brown pupils turned red and narrowed down to a pair of tiny bright dots. A sound similar to a singing kettle sang from deep within her chest.

The contents of the bottle did actually contain wine, as Mokou had promised. But they also contained a special ingredient, one too hot even for an oni’s legendary tolerance for…just about anything, actually. A few drops of Mokou’s own blood. With _that_ swimming through her, all of the other alcohol in Suika’s system was burned away and her brain strangely compliant to suggestion. For a few minutes, anyway.

“Youkai Forest,” Mokou pressed. “New kind of weird. Go.”

Suika’s head jerked once, and she started talking in a low, clipped tone with no inflection whatsoever, “While no new entities have been known to take up residence within the Youkai Forest, there have been whispers and rumors that some outsiders have been in contact with some of its more mercenary inhabitants. The identity of these outsiders are unknown, with some claiming that they are youkai from the mountains, youkai from the Underworld, youkai from the Forest of Magic, or even Humans.”

Bingo. “Humans?” Mokou said. “What Humans?”

Now red veins were spreading through the whites of Suika’s eyes, and actual steam was pouring out of her ears, nose and mouth, puffing up with every word. “Unknown. Their identity is nothing but pure speculation, and those who know of them are either sworn to secrecy or do not care enough to find out.”

Damn. “Okay, but what youkai, though? Which ones have been talking to these strangers?”

“The…” Suddenly Suika’s body started to shake violently. “Th-Th-The spi-pi-pi-pi-”

Suika fell flat onto her back, arms splayed to either side, bloodshot eyes staring unblinking up at the sky. Now her whole body was steaming.

Mokou waved a hand in front of Suika’s face. No reaction. Her brain had been completely cooked.

Sighing, Mokou stood up. Well, that wasn’t a lot information to go on, but it was a start. Now the thing to do would be to go into the Youkai Forest itself and see if she could find something with loose lips.

In the meantime, she ought to check back in with the orphanage like she had promised. Though she had no reason to believe that anything had happened while she had been gone, her skin was crawling. Something did feel…off, something more than what she knew already.

A few idiots spreading hate and fear probably wouldn’t send a mob after a bunch of kids in only a few days, but more terrible things had happened. And if there really was something organized going on between Humans and mercenary youkai, then it could be that they would take Mokou’s absence as an opportunity to do something. Either way, Mokou felt that she had been gone too long.

Leaving Suika’s smoking body where it lay and her own bottles as something of an apology for Suika to find, Mokou hopped off the cliff, fell several meters, and then swooped up into the air. She wasn’t worried about Suika. Within an hour or so, her oni constitution would filter out the drink, repair the damage, and she would wake up with a hell of a hangover that would be swallowed up before she knew it. In all likelihood she wouldn’t even remember talking to Mokou at all.

However, those kids weren’t nearly as durable as Mokou or Suika was. And if something was looking to do them harm, then she was going to be there to stop it.

…

“Okay, guys!” Mr. Joshua called out. “Everyone gather ‘round.”

For once he didn’t need to tell anyone twice. This was the one lesson that everyone had been anxiously anticipating, marking down the slow progression of days until it had finally arrived. Today those old enough were finally going to learn how to fly.

All told, there were about half of them there, with Noba and Tomohiro already having learned this a couple years ago while everyone else was still too young. Rumia, Kohta, and Keine, of course, as well as Kana, Melissa, and Shinji. And unfortunately, Haruko, Eiko, and Hayate, because nothing good ever happened without some kind of downside.

“All right, now I know you all are hoping to be swooping through the clouds right away-” Mr. Joshua began.

Melissa’s hand shot up and she said something in Spanish.

“Melissa, remember. Try to speak so everyone else can understand you,” Mr. Joshua chided.

Melissa frowned. “You are…sure that mine can fly with others?” she said slowly.

Out of the corner of her eye, Rumia saw Eiko mockingly miming Melissa’s attempts to speak Japanese. Rumia scowled and stealthily reached into her pocket and extracted a rubber band and a slip of paper.

“Of course,” Mr. Joshua said. “After all, I wasn’t born in Gensokyo either.” Holding his hands to his side with his palms down, he lifted off the ground about a meter, hovered in place for a few seconds, and then lowered himself down again. “Every person that comes to live in Gensokyo, whether they are born here or come from the outside, are granted the same gifts and abilities.”

“Except for not being ugly,” Hayate whispered just loud enough for those standing right next to her to hear. Haruko and Eiko both giggled. Meanwhile, Rumia had twisted the piece of paper into a tiny tube and was working the rubber band around her fingers.

“Now, as I was saying, flying is, in itself, incredibly easy. But training your body and mind how to do it? Not quite so much. It’s a lot like learning how to walk. Once you’ve got it down you don’t even think about it, you just do it. But before then you need to learn how to keep your balance, how to make your legs strong enough to support you.”

“But what if…” Melissa’s face scrunched up. “Fall. What if I fall?”

“Don’t worry. We’ll be taking this slowly. Today we’re just going to work on getting you off the ground. By the time you’re touching the sky, it’ll be as easy as breathing. Besides, I’ll be watching the whole time.” He clapped his hands. “All right, everyone! Time to practice those exercises we taught you! Groups of three now.”

Everyone walked off with their respective trio. Rumia was with Kohta and Keine of course, while Haruko, Hayate, and Eiko also stuck together. Shinji’s best friends already knew how to fly, so he went with Kana and Melissa, though judging by the look on his face he would have rather practiced with someone less…odd.

As they walked, Rumia spread the rubber band between her fingers, pressed the rolled-up piece of paper against it, took aim, and let it fly.

“Okay, let’s go over here,” she said as she stuck her hand into her pocket and turned her back to her target. A tiny yelp of surprise told her that her aim was true.

Keine frowned. “What are you smirking about?”

“Nothing! I’m just happy about flying! Why wouldn’t I be happy? Aren’t you happy?”

Keine glanced over to where Haruko was presumably still looking about for what had hit her. “Stop picking fights.”

To this, Rumia innocently whistled.

They took a spot in the grass, sat down cross-legged in a small circle, shut their eyes, and tried to thinking airy thoughts.

Nothing happened.

“Don’t be disappointed if you can’t do it at first,” Mr. Joshua had told them. “You have already daydreamed about flying countless times, so it can take a while for your spirit to discern the difference between that and the actual will to fly. Remember: don’t _tell_ yourself to do it, but instead _will_ yourself up.”

Well, that was easier said than done. Rumia tried imagining herself soaring through the clouds like one of the Tengu, rising up through the clouds on invisible wings. It was a nice daydream, but that was the sort of thing usually reserved for keeping herself amused during boring lessons. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get herself to stop feeling the grass prickling at her legs.

“Up,” Keine muttered under her breath. “Up. Up. Up. Up.”

Rumia sighed. Okay, concentrate. She wasn’t here, sitting in the itchy grass. She was standing on a big, bouncy mushroom. It was light and springy under her feet, and she could just feel it trembling, waiting to propel her into the sky.

All she had to do was jump up, and she would be rising, rising, rising, rising-

At her side, Kohta started to snore.

Rumia cranked her right eye open to glower at him. Then she reached over to swat him.

“What, what?” he said with a sudden jerk. Then he saw Rumia glaring at him.

“Sorry,” he muttered as he settled back down. “It’s just…it’s really warm, and…” The rest of his explanation was swallowed up by a cavernous yawn.

Rumia yawned as well. Well, he wasn’t wrong. It was a pretty sleepy day. Under any other circumstances she would be tempted to just stretch out and let herself drift off. But she couldn’t. She was here to learn how to fly, and by the gods, she was going to do it!

Settling back down, she tried a different tactic. She was drifting in the sky, lying flat on her back on a large, fluffy cloud, the Gensokyian landscape passing by beneath her. This was where she belonged. The sky was her home, and she was safe and warm, floating along as naturally as could be. She was meant to be in the air, where everything was…all floaty and…and dreamy…and…

Before Rumia could fully drift to sleep herself, something sharp struck her cheek.

“Wah!” she cried as she slapped a hand across where she had been hit.

“What? What is it?” Kohta said in surprise.

“Something…” Rumia looked around. “I thought something hit me!”

“Is everything okay?” Mr. Joshua called over to her. From the look of things, he had been helping Melissa, Kana, and Noba’s group.

Rumia blinked in confusion. She was _sure_ that she had felt something.

“No, I’m fine!” she called back. “Just a bug, I guess.”

Sighing, she tried to get herself to relax again. Just as well that had happened, as she had been moments away from napping. 

All right, where was she? No, not the cloud. If she kept that up much longer then she was going to snore her way through the whole lesson. Maybe something a little more exciting, like leaping off the highest peak of the Youkai Mountain, or-

Then the something hit her in the back of her neck.

“Ow!” She again smacked the point of impact, but found nothing. However, she know had a pretty good idea who was responsible.

Rumia turned fully around to look behind her. Sure enough, not far from where they were sitting, Haruko and her two minions were in a circle of their own. And judging by the way they were glancing at her and snickering, they had figured out who had shot that paper missile at them earlier, and now mastering the fine art of aviation was of less importance to them than returning fire.

“What’s wrong?” Keine whispered.

 _“Them,”_ Rumia hissed back.

Keine craned her neck to see. “Oh. Uh, should we move then?”

Rumia shook her head. Doing that was akin to admitting defeat.

“Want to trade places then?”

That idea actually made Rumia hesitate. Though she didn’t look it, Keine’s youkai blood gave her speed and reflexes far above that of a normal human. If they tried lobbing splinters at her, Keine could probably catch them even with her back turned. The look on their faces after something like that would be so delicious.

But…no. If there was one ironclad rule that they refused to violate, it was to never, ever give up the secret of Keine’s parentage. Bullying they could handle, and give back in return. Letting something like _that_ drop risked having the entirety of the home come after Keine’s mixed blood.

“No,” Rumia growled. “We’ll just get them back-”

Something glanced off her shoulder. This time she didn’t turn in response, though her right eyelid had developed a slight twitch.

Suddenly some kind of uproar sounded from across the field. Both Shinji and Melissa had leapt to their feet and were retreating backward in surprise while Mr. Joshua laughed and clapped his hands in approval.

 _Kana_ of all people had somehow managed to pull flight off…and she hadn’t even noticed! She was now hovering about half a meter off ground, her legs still crossed beneath her, hands clasped tightly at her chest, her head bowed and her eyes squeezed shut.

“Wow,” Keine said. “She actually did it.”

Kohta sighed. “Of course she would be the one to figure it out. Of course it would be here.”

“Well, yeah, it only makes sense,” Rumia said. “Her head’s so filled with air that it’s a miracle she’s not floating everywhere already.”

“Well done!” Mr. Joshua said. “You see? You all have it within you. Okay, Kana. You can come down now.”

Kana didn’t appear to have heard him. She was starting to drift a little to the left as she continued to rise upward. And her body was beginning to tilt.

Mr. Joshua cleared his throat. “Ah, Kana?”

Now Kana was tilted fully horizontal, and she just kept turning.

“Kana.”

“Shhh!” Kana hissed, her eyes still closed. “I’m concentrating.”

“Yes, well, you’re also upside-down.”

“Huh?” Kana finally opened her eyes.

By then she had drifted enough so that she was above Mr. Joshua’s head, her inverted face staring at his scraggly beard where it fell across his barrel-shaped chest.

Kana stared stupefied at the unexpected sight for several seconds before saying, “Uh, Mr. Joshua? Why are you standing on your head?”

“Look down,” Mr. Joshua suggested.

Kana did so, though from her perspective she was actually looking up. When she saw the endless expanse of the sky spread out “beneath” her, her eyes went wide.

“Oh,” she said. “The world’s flipped. Why’s that?”

“No, Kana,” Mr. Joshua said patiently. “You’re flying.”

“I am?” Kana looked around. She finally seemed to notice how everything around her was upturned, as well as how far the ground was by now.

“Oh! I am!” A pleased smile spread across her inverted features. “Well, isn’t that nice?”

“It is indeed!” Mr. Joshua gently took her by the shoulders and moved her back around again. “Now, while you’re still in the air, why don’t you tell everyone what-”

Suddenly a shrill horn sounded from the house. Everyone froze in fear. They knew that sound from a hundred drills and the small handful of times it had been blown in earnest. It was a sound that screamed through each of their nightmares.

Dangerous youkai were coming.

“Everyone inside!” Miss Satoko called from the porch. “Joshua! Haruna! Bring them in!”

Rumia, Kohta, and Keine all scrambled to their feet. Lesson was over, and now it was time to flee. Nearby, Haruko and her gang were doing the same. Hostilities were suspended. Now the read danger was coming.

It was something they had practiced over and over again, something that had been embedded deep into their psyches whenever that horn sounded. Run for the house. Get underground and be _quiet!_ Don’t try to fight, don’t look back to see. Just run.

And that was all very well and good, but as terrible fate would have it, one of their number was in no position to run, given that her feet were still off the ground.

As soon as the horn had sounded, Kana had been so startled that she had forgotten her training. Again. And normally, that wouldn’t be much of a problem. The grown-ups were well used to her…shortcomings, and one would always be sure to grab her by the hand and hastily take her to safety. And fortunately, Mr. Joshua was certainly close enough to do that.

Unfortunately, normally she wouldn’t be floating in the air.

She shot off like a bullet, instinctively moving _away_ from the sudden sound instead of toward it. Rumia and her friends all threw themselves to the ground in order to avoid her, but only just. She whizzed past their heads and just kept going.

The other group of children weren’t so quick on the uptake.

Kana slammed right into them. If they had been lucky, the impact would have just taken the four of them off their feet and sent them tumbling into a heap for Mr. Joshua and Miss Mokou to collect.

But luck was a stranger to the orphans of the Aoki Yume’s Children’s Home. It always had been.

Either Kana had built up a considerable amount of momentum or she was a lot heftier than she looked. Either way, only Eiko was sent sprawling to the ground. Haruko was lifted right off her feet and yanked into the air along with Kana. Seconds later the two of them slammed into Hayate, and all three shot into the air.

Rumia, Kohta, and Keine all watched in horror as the three of angled upward, soaring higher and higher toward the border fence. At some point, Kana had apparently stopped flying and was just propelled forward by momentum alone, as soon all three of them had started to tumble back to earth, their arms and legs flailing as Haruko and Hayate screamed in terror. Kana, it should be noted, had yet to make any sound at all.

When they hit the ground, they were far, _far_ outside of the protection of the charms that had been set up along the perimeter fence.

What was more, there were dark figures starting to move across the hills.

Rumia knew that she ought to run. Even with the charms in place, it wouldn’t take much to an especially determined youkai to break through. But for some reason it was like she had forgotten how to move. Her legs felt like twin lumps of lead, and all she could do was stand and gawk as four… _things_ ambled over the crest of the far off hills. Though she couldn’t make out their features, they seemed…sort of humanoid, with four limbs and a head apiece. But their arms and legs were much, _much_ too long and much too thin. And they didn’t move like humans. Instead, they were crawling along on all fours like insects…no, _like_ spiders, their grotesque arms and legs fully extended and bent in unnatural ways, with their jagged elbows pointed up and their knees bending in the wrong direction. Their heads bobbed along on skinny necks, their long, stringy hair seeming to hang down across their faces like veils.

Icy cold fear seeped through Rumia’s spine. Youkai. Wild youkai, and from the Youkai Forest from the look of it.

Humanity’s views of their more magically-inclined neighbors tended to be…diverse. Those in the Human Village were often hostile toward youkai, seeing them as dangerous animals at best. Oddly enough, those who lived further out and were in actual danger of youkai attacks had a more nuanced viewpoint. Even those who lived in the Aoki Yume Children’s Home, most of whom had actually lost their families to youkai attacks, knew that most youkai were people. Sure, they tended to be wilder at heart, but many of them were just mischievous and pretty harmless. Several were quite benevolent and were more than happy to get along with their Human neighbors.

But no amount of friendly interactions would change the fact that dangerous youkai did exist, the kind that preyed up man’s flesh and drank their blood. The lack of other Yagamis in Gensokyo was proof of that.

And it was clear at a glance what kind of youkai these were.

And they were heading straight for Kana, Haruko, and Hayate.

“No!” Eiko screamed. She bolted for the fence, cleared it in a single leaping hurdle, and ran to protect her friends.

Rumia, Kohta, and Keine didn’t hesitate for a second. Kana might be a weirdo and the other three might be insufferable assholes, but when everyone present was divided into an “Us” and a “Them,” it was clear where those four landed, and what those youkai were.

“Guys, get _up!”_ Rumia screamed so loudly that her throat almost tore. “Go! Get out of here!” Kohta shouted at the youkai. Keine didn’t say anything at all. She merely ran so fast that she was almost to the stunned group by the time Rumia and Kohta reached the fence.

“No!” Rumia heard Mr. Joshua call from behind her. “Kids, _don’t!”_

Rumia didn’t listen. Their family was in danger.

The fence was fast approaching. She leapt up, fully intending to vault the whole wooden structure in one go.

Then a thick hand seized her by the back of the skirt and yanked her back.

Gasping in surprise, Rumia was sent rolling backward into the grass. She landed flat on her back, the fence now above her head. From her inverted position, she saw an upside-down Mr. Joshua leaping into the air and taking flight. “Get them inside!” he shouted to someone out of sight.

A moment later a different set of hands grabbed Rumia and pulled her up. Miss Haruna had pulled both her and Kohta off the ground and was dragging the two of them back.

Rumia snapped out of her daze. “Wait, no!” she said as she struggled against the stocky woman’s grip. “I have to help Keine! Let me go!”

She might as well have been struggling against a stone for all the good it did. Miss Haruna kept silent as she hauled the two of them back.

But while Miss Haruna could keep them from rushing to their sisters’ aid, she couldn’t stop them from seeing what was happening.

Keine had already reached the fallen group mere seconds after Eiko did, who was trying to haul everyone away by herself, with each of her arms wrapped around Haruko and Hayate’s dazed bodies while Kana’s collar was clutched in one hand. Keine didn’t hesitate, and grabbed onto _everyone_ , Haruko and Kana in one hand, and Hayate and a _very_ confused Eiko in the other, and started pulling them away all by herself. It was an impressive feat of strength, one that a girl her age and size had no business performing.

Unfortunately, she was merely _half-_ youkai. And the spiders were the real deal.

Mr. Joshua was flying toward the other kids like panicked aerial tree stump. “Get _back!”_ he hollered. Glowing green crisscrossing circles orbited by spinning green triangles appeared around his right hand. He hurled a ball of sputtering energy at the air above the spiders, who were getting dangerously close to the kids. It exploded like a firework and sent green sparks raining down upon up.

They flinched and hissed but didn’t stop. The lead spider reared his head back like a striking snake and spat something that looked like a gooey loogie the size of a dinner plate right into Mr. Joshua’s face.

Mr. Joshua was knocked back, hands clawing at the glob of spiderweb that now encased his face.

Two more spiders vomited up webs, this time ones that remained connected to their mouths via long and sticky strands. One enveloped up Kana and Eiko while the other took Haruko and Hayate.

Keine stumbled and fell. She started to rise up when the fourth spider webbed her up as well.

Rumia stopped fighting against Miss Haruna. Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no.

The three webbed-up bundles kept kicking and thrashing, but it did none of them any good. The spiders swarmed over them, hands going to work covering every last bit of the kids, cocooning them like mummies.

Though his face was still covered with the white, sticky mess, Mr. Joshua was struggling to get to his feet. He managed to get onto his knees when one of the spiders looked up and spat another glob at him. This time it hit him in the stomach and knocked him flat again.

Now that the spiders had their prey fully bound up, they were leaving, retreating back the way they came with their bundles strapped to their backs like backpacks. They took to the air, flying off together.

“Keine!” Rumia screamed.

They were getting away.

_“Keine!”_

They had her friend.

_“Keine, no!”_

They had her sisters.

_“Keine, please! Please, no!”_

They were getting away.

“K-K-Keine…” Rumia sobbed as big, fat tears ran down her cheeks.


	7. The Youkai Forest

The Youkai Forest

Mokou already felt that something was wrong, and the moment she came into view of the Aoki Yume’s Children’s Home all but confirmed it.

The house was quiet. The lights were on, all of the outside lanterns were lit, but there was no one in sight. The surrounding fields and the garden were all empty.

If there was something that could be counted on at the orphanage, it was that it was never quiet. Even in the evening after the kids had been brought it one could count on seeing someone about, such as Joshua up on a ladder along the side of the house, repairing a loose window, or Haruna relaxing on the porch.

But there was nobody in sight, and while it was late afternoon, it was still before the time when the kids would be brought in.

Mokou felt a flash of fear, a very rare sensation for her. She tightened her fists and threw everything into a final burst of speed.

The house rushed up to her. She spun around, directed her feet toward the front path, and hit the ground running. From there, she sped up the path, her bare feet kicking up clouds of dust, and leapt up the stairs toward the-

Front path.

Mokou skidded to a stop and looked around in bewilderment. Now she was facing _away_ from the house, as if she had been running away from it instead of toward.

Also, she was pretty sure she had heard someone yell “Ow!” from inside.

Mokou turned back toward the house. For the most part it looked the same, but there did seem to be something off about it, something she hadn’t noticed coming in.

Tilting her head to one side, Mokou squinted her eyes. Sure enough, all around the front porch were strange refractions of light, rippling out like the surface of a pond disturbed by a pebble.

Huh.

Mokou took a slow, deliberate step forward into the field of disorientation. Her vision quickly spun around, and she found herself facing away from the porch again. At the same time, someone yelped, “Damn it!”

It Mokou a moment to realize what was going on. That had to be Haruna. Haruna’s particular gift was the ability to essentially flip reality, to turn it back around on people. Which sounded like something that would be immensely useful, but unfortunately she was unable to maintain it over a large area for very long, and if anyone or anything actually got flipped by it, it gave her a massive headache.

Rather than subject her friend to a skull-splitting migraine, Mokou cupped her hands around her mouth and called, “Hey! It’s me! Let me in!”

Immediately a clamor of voices sounded within. “It’s Miss Mokou!” she heard Tomohiro say. “Let her in! Quick!”

“How do we know it’s actually her?” Shinji retorted. “Maybe it’s another youkai, one that just sounds like her!”

Melissa said something very quick and frantic-sounding in Spanish.

Rolling her eyes, Mokou called out again. “Look, either you guys let me in, or I’m gonna start walking toward the porch over and over again until Haruna’s head splits like an egg, okay? It’s me!”

“That’s her,” Satoko’s voice said. “Let her in, Haruna.”

The shimmers dropped, and Mokou heard the sound of the front door’s heavy lock being unbolted.

She rushed inside. There, she saw the most of the kids huddled into a tight group while some of the other adults stood protectively over them. Mokou hastily shut the door behind her and relocked it.

“What happened?” she demanded.

Haruna was sitting on the bottom step of the staircase with her aching head clutched with one hand, with Haruhi standing over her, holding onto her other hand. Sniffing, Haruhi glowered at Mokou with wet and puffy eyes. “Where were you?” she said.

“What? I was getting information like I said I would!”

“Well, you should have been here! You could’ve stopped this, stopped _them_ from…from…”

“Enough!” Satoko said. She was standing with Akito crying in her arms, her normally stern features now a mix of anger and fear. “This isn’t the time to tear into one another! I know we’re all scared and upset, but I’m the one who asked Mokou to go look for answers. If you have to be mad at someone, be mad at me.”

Haruhi just shook her head and ran off.

Mokou took a deep breath and hissed it out through her teeth. “What. Happened?”

“It was youkai,” Satoko said. Her eyes were wet with tears, her face shimmering with sweat. “Wild spider youkai apparently. Five of the kids accidentally wound up outside of the charms during flying lessons. The spiders just…just showed up and took them.”

Mokou looked over the group and took a quick headcount. Noba was sitting in a nearby chair, his head in his hands, with his friends Shinji, Tomohiro, and Kazuchika with him. Check. The younger boys, specifically Yoshi, Hiro, Keiichi, Dai, and Yuuki, were in another group, whispering amongst themselves. Check. Melissa, the only girl present, was pacing back and forth, wringing her hands together as she muttered under her breath in her native language. Check, And Akito was in Satoko’s arms. Check.

However, more than five children were gone. Both of the terrible trios were absent, as was Melissa’s fellow oddball Kana.

“Who?” she said.

Satoko sighed. “Hayate, Haruko, Eiko, Kana, and Keine.”

Each name felt like a hammer-blow to her heart, but when she got to Keine Mokou felt something hot and powerful unlock deep within her. Because while she was fond and protective of all the children, Keine was kind of her favorite. Keine had been part of the trio that had rescued her from the snow in the first place. Keine had been the first to reach out to her after she had been brought in, the first to form any kind of relationship with her when all the other children had been too scared to talk to the mysterious and dangerous stranger now in their midst.

“What about the rest?” Mokou said. “Where’s Kohta and Rumia?”

“Upstairs,” Satoko said. “They, uh, understandably wanted to be alone.”

Right, that made sense. After all, it was their friend that had been taken.

Five kids. Five little girls, taken by spider youkai.

Mokou knew the habits of wild spider youkai, she knew them very well. Some spiders were nice. Some were quite friendly people, in fact. But others were not. Others were the sort that did terrible things to other people, that did terrible, horrible, absolutely monstrous things to children. And she felt quite certain that these were of that latter category.

Mokou closed her eyes and mentally counted down from ten. “And you just _let_ them?” she snapped before she had even gotten to four.

Haruna quickly cut in. “We did everything he could, kid,” the rough-looking woman said. “Joshua tried to stop them, we both did. But they were ready for us. Hit us with some kind of web. Then they just flew off.”

Joshua. He was missing too. And so was Shion.

“Where is Joshua?” Mokou said. “And where’s Shion?”

“Shion flew to go get help,” Satoko told her. “Old Pine Village still supports us, and it’s the closest, so she went there.”

Old Pine Village. Right. That also made sense, but Satoko had only answered one of her questions. “And Joshua?”

Satoko bit her lower lip. “He went after them.”

The air around Mokou was starting to grow hazy. She heard several of the children whispering to one another, saw them draw away from her. “After them,” Mokou repeated. “After _whom?_ To _where?”_

“The youkai. He went after the youkai. He said that he couldn’t let them take…take them to…”

Of course he did. Mokou closed her eyes. “And where did the youkai come from?” she said, her eyes still shut. “Where did they take the kids?”

“We don’t really-”

Mokou’s eyes snapped open. The haze around her vision was now a film of red.

Satoko gasped and backed away. Akito stopped crying, and just stared.

“I know,” Mokou growled. “I know where they came from. I know where they took them. The Youkai Forest. Of course it is.”

“Mokou, your eyes,” Satoko said as she covered Akito’s with her hand. “They’re glowing!”

Mokou knew this. Mokou didn’t care. “They took them to the Youkai Forest, and Joshua went after them! That’s where they are now, that’s where he is now, isn’t it?”

Satoko’s mouth wordlessly opened and closed like a fish’s, then she stuttered. “Y-Y-Yes, th-that does seem to be the most likely-”

“Most likely my ass! Look, I’ve spent the last few days hunting down whatever news I could, and what I found out is that some weird shit is going on in that damn forest, and someone from _outside_ the forest is causing it!”

“Wait, say that again?” Haruna said. “You mean to tell me-”

“I said what I said, now get out of my way!” Mokou roared.

Haruna backed up. She hadn’t backed away from anyone in years, but she did so now, though not quick enough. Mokou shoved her aside and made for the stairs.

Children parted like ants from a flood, and Haruna hastily made herself scarce. Mokou stomped her way up, leaving blackened footprints sizzling on every step.

She was coming close to losing it. She was coming close to losing all control and just letting the raging fires that burned within her at all times just burst free. That didn’t happen often. Even at her most violent, when her life had been an unceasing cycle of pain and death, she had been careful to restrict it to a single person, someone who both deserved it and could take it.

But there had been a small handful of times, oh so very few, in which she had been pushed too far, when all other options had failed, when she had been confronted by an evil so sickening that her own monstrous soul paled in comparison and the only option was to cleanse everything with fire.

Mokou was not at the point yet. But she was getting close.

She threw open the door to her room and went straight for her dresser. She yanked the bottom drawer straight out and hurled it aside. Then she reached into the empty cavity and pulled out a small oak box.

It was this box that she set on the bed and opened up. Inside were two stacks of aging, yellow paper rectangles, all covered with a series of characters. In between them was a pile of old red-and-white ribbons. The characters on the left-hand stack were all the same, indicating them to be charms that protected against fire. Similar characters were written on the ribbons.

Mokou took those charms and stuck them all over her pants. Then she picked up one of the ribbons and muttered a word. In response, the entire pile fluttered up into the air. They surrounded her like a swarm of butterflies, and then dove in, tying themselves into bows through her long locks of hair. Mokou anticipated violence where she was going, and that meant a great deal of fire was probably going to be slung around. If that happened, then she’d rather not come home naked.

The second stack was smaller, and the runes and glyphs inscribed on each card was different. They were spellcards, each one containing an easily unleashed burst of offensive magic. Along with the glowing magical bullets known as danmaku, Spellcards were the preferred weapon of Gensokyians, and having a few on hand could be the difference between life and death.

Mokou picked up her stack of spellcards. She flourished them like a magician playing a trick to impress children, folded them back up again, and stuck them into her pocket. All right. Now she was ready to go.

Then, before she went through the door, she paused. Wait a minute.

Mokou took the cards out of her pocket and inspected them. It was as she had thought. She was supposed to have twelve cards, but there were only nine. Three of them were missing.

“Satoko!” she yelled.

“What?” Satoko was already at the door, sans Akito. “What is it?”

“My spellcards!” Mokou thrust the nine she had at her. “Who took them?”

Satoko blinked in confusion. “What do you mean? You’re holding them.”

“Only some! Three are missing! Did Joshua take them?”

“Uh, no? H-He took one of the usual anti-youkai packs we have in storage. I don’t think he even knew you had those.” Satoko frowned. “Actually, _I_ didn’t know you had those. Did you have a stash of spellcards this whole time?”

Mokou barely heard the question. Her mind was racing, filtering through the list of likely culprits.

She ruled out Satoko, Haruna, and Haruhi immediately. Of the three, only Satoko had ever even been in her room, and if she had taken her spellcards she would have told her without apology. Besides, she probably would have taken the whole deck if it meant protecting the kids.

Shion, maybe? To give her some extra protection on her trip? Incredibly unlikely. Shion also had never been in her room and had no way of knowing of her stash. So it had to be one of the kids. But which one would-

“Wait,” she said. “Wait, wait, wait. You said Rumia and Kohta are up here, right?”

“Well, yes,” Satoko said. “They had locked themselves in the playroom. But-”

Then realization washed over her face, draining it of color. Her hand went to her mouth, and she turned and ran.

“Kohta!” Mokou heard her calling. “Rumia? Answer me!”

Mokou didn’t follow. She didn’t need to. She already had pieced together what had happened.

Those little idiots. Those brave, loyal, _infuriating_ idiots!

The spiders had five of their kids. There was one adult looking for them, and he was just as helpless as they were in his own way. And apparently two more kids had gone in on their own.

That was eight people she needed to find in a large and dense forest, eight people that were in very mortal danger and weren’t even all in the same place.

When Satoko returned to Mokou’s room after having confirmed that Rumia and Kohta were nowhere in the house, she found it empty with the window shattered outward and a trail of smoke still rising in the open air beyond, one that led all the way to the Youkai Forest.

…

Rumia and Kohta’s decision to sneak out and go after the spiders that had taken their friends had been easy enough. After that display in the market, they could not trust anyone to come to their aid, and while Mr. Joshua was a good guy, he wasn’t exactly the first person that they would have selected to mount a successful rescue operation, especially by himself.

Getting out of the house had been easy. Mr. Joshua and Miss Shion were both gone, Miss Haruna had her hands full with shielding the house, Miss Haruhi was a flustered wreck, and all of Miss Satoko’s attention was given to trying to keep things in order. So the second no eyes were on them, they had broken into the emergency defense closet, already left conveniently unlocked by Mister Joshua, and took a pair of anti-youkai knives and some charms. Then Kohta had snuck up into Miss Mokou’s room to raid her own stash of weapons, coming away with three of her spellcards.

Once they had been appropriately armed, the two of them had crept into the basement, stole through the larders to the outside door so as to bypass Miss Haruna’s shield, and off they went.

It had been so easy, but when the two of them were actually away from the fields and taking their first steps into the forest, Rumia found herself kind of wishing that there had been more resistance. After all, the Youkai Forest was not quite as notorious as its larger and darker cousin, the Forest of Magic, but its reputation was plenty dark enough.

As it was in the middle of autumn, most of the trees had shed their needles, with left the pair with plenty of moonlight to see by. It was a small comfort. The naked branches reminded Rumia far too much of gnarled skeletons grasping at the sky with bony fingers. The ground was painfully uneven and covered with a thick layer of rotting needles and bark, which made moving forward slow and tedious. Though morning was still hours away, a wispy mist lay around the trees’ base, further slowing their progress.

And of course, there were the noises.

Every hoot of an owl, every snap of a twig sent shivers down the two children’s spines. Rumia had heard plenty of stories of children who wandered into woods such as this and were never seen again, at least not in one piece. Normally she loved those stories, with their macabre tones and gory endings. But it was one thing to recount such ghastly tales to her trembling friends while using her scary voice and laughing at how much it made them shake. It was something else entirely to be willingly stepping foot into one of those tales herself.

Then there were the other stories, the ones with similar set-ups but different endings, the ones in which the lost children would also never come home, but not because they were killed, but because the forest ended up changing them, turning them into something other than human, dooming them to forever wander the forest’s dark paths, looking to become the monster in someone else’s story.

Though she would never admit it, those were the stories that scared Rumia the most. Her own family had been killed by marauding youkai. Had any of them been lost children themselves? What if the same happened to her? What if she were doomed to become some red-eyed, sharp-toothed thing that devoured the families of other children? The first time she had heard one of _those_ stories, she had been unable to sleep for most of the night. Every creak of the old house had sounded like the soft footsteps of some dark thing, every whisper of wind at the window seeming to call her name, while the moonlight made even the smallest of shadows elongate across the floor, stretching out and reaching for her.

Rumia’s hand was clasped tightly to Kohta’s, and for once neither of them had a joke.

They moved forward as quietly as they could, taking care not to disturb the forest debris beneath their feet. In this they were doing…poorly. It felt like something crunched with every footstep, and by the time they had gone out of side of the forest’s edge Rumia was convinced that every animal and youkai for kilometers had been alerted.

_Crunch. Crunch. Crunch._

“Maybe-” she started to say.

Kohta flinched. “Ah! Gods, you scared the crap out of me!”

“Sorry. But maybe we’d better go back.”

Kohta stared at her like she had grown two heads. “And let Keine get eaten?”

“No! But we don’t know where she is. We can’t help her if we get eaten too!”

Kohta sneered at her in disgust. “No. I’m not abandoning her. Go back if you’re too scared.”

“I’m not scared,” Rumia said stubbornly. “I just don’t, you know, I just don’t think-”

“Shhh!” Kohta clamped a hand over her mouth. “Look!”

There was a light up ahead, bobbing through the trees. The two children looked at each other. Rumia gulped. If there was one universal truth in all the stories they had heard, it was that mysterious lights floating through creepy old forests at night were _bad news!_

The two crouched behind a tree and peeked out. The light hadn’t been their imagination. It was slowly moving through the woods about twenty meters from where they were. What was more, there seemed to a dark, shadowy figure following it. Rumia couldn’t make out their features, but it didn’t seem very tall.

“Is that a ghost?” Rumia whispered.

“There’s no such thing as ghosts,” Kohta whispered back.

Despite the severity of their situation, the stupidity of that comment made Rumia just stop worrying about the light and stare at her friend in shock. “Kohta, that might be the _dumbest_ thing I have ever heard you-”

 _“Keeeeeiiiiiiinnnnnneeeeee!”_ the dark figure suddenly called out, its warbling voice echoing through the night.

Rumia and Kohta both ducked out of sight.

 _“Kaaaaaaannnnnnnnaaaaaaaaa!”_ the voice called. _“Eeeeeiiiiiiiiikoooooo!”_

Rumia was shaking all over. It _was_ a ghost, a dark phantom mournfully crying out the names of their probably dead friends, doomed to forever wail the names of the deceased like an eternal eulogy for the-

“Oh,” Kohta said. “It’s him! Mr. Joshua!”

Rumia slowly breathed out. He was right. “Great. I thought we were in a different part of the forest than him.”

“I guess not. Let’s go before he sees us.”

Kohta started to leave, but Rumia tugged sharply on his hand. “Wait,” she said. “Maybe we’d better go to him.”

“No way!”

“But-”

Kohta wrenched his hand from hers. “Look, if you’re too scared, then you go talk to him! He’ll probably just have to take you back, and he’ll just stop them from searching! Keine and the others could die while he’s doing that! We came out here to help find them, not make the rescue take longer!”

Rumia winced. That was a very good point. Sighing, Rumia just nodded and got up to follow.

The pair stealthily moved away from the other search searcher. It felt like it took forever, but eventually the light disappeared, as did the sound of Mr. Joshua’s voice. The only sound was that of their footsteps crushing leaves and sticks.

_Crunch. Crunch. Crunch._

When she was absolutely certain that they were alone, Rumia said, “There’s no such thing as ghosts? Really?”

“Well, I’ve never seen one,” Kohta said, somewhat defensively.

“Wow,” Rumia said. “Wow.”

“Look, everyone knows that when you die, your soul gets taken across the River Suzune by the Shinigami! That’s just the rules! You don’t get to stick around haunting your old house and-”

“Shhh!” Now it was Rumia’s turn to slap a hand over her friend’s mouth.

Kohta shut up, though he was obviously bursting with questions.

Rumia pointed a finger. When Kohta saw what she did, he made a low whimpering sound.

There was a clearing up ahead, a circle clear of trees and bathed in moonlight. There wasn’t much in it other than patches of wild grass and some small stones. However, sitting directly in the center was a…something, something that Rumia could only see the basic shape of. It was large, hulking, and had a pair of great elk antlers protruding from the top.

Rumia shied back. It was one of the great monsters of the forest, it had to be! How many stories of had she grown up hearing of the dark spirits that wandered these woods, of their bloodthirsty dispositions and their taste for the flesh of children?

She tugged on Kohta’s hand and tilted her head back the way they came. Maybe if they crept away as slowly and quietly as they could, they could get away without attracting its attention.

“Wait,” Kohta whispered, his eyes somehow narrowing even further as he studied the towering silhouette.

Rumia gawked at him in disbelief. Wait? Why should they wait? They needed to get away from that thing right the hell _now!_

However, Kohta didn’t seem to share her rational fear of whatever the thing in the clearing was. “I don’t think it’s alive,” he whispered again.

Rumia quite frankly didn’t care. Lots of things weren’t alive. That didn’t make them any less likely to kill the two of them!

However, Kohta was not to be deterred. He began to slowly creep around the clearing, keeping his eye on the thing. And since she couldn’t pull him away without making a racket, Rumia was forced to go with him.

The silhouette didn’t move as they circled around it. Rumia bit her lower lip to keep from whimpering in fear as she watched its horned head, just waiting for it to suddenly turn toward them.

It didn’t.

“I think-” Kohta started to say, right before Rumia slapped a hand over his mouth. She gawked at him for being so stupid as to talk with that thing so close.

Kohta rolled his eyes. He pulled Rumia’s hand off and inclined his head toward the silhouette.

Rumia looked again. Come to think of it, it didn’t look like any kind of creature. Instead, it seemed kind of rough and misshapen. However, it did have a definite shape, one with a high and wide back and-

“It’s a chair,” Kohta sniggered. “That’s all it is. A chair.”

Rumia shot him a dirty look, but he was right. It was a chair, a great big chair made of stone and covered with moss, sticks, and even a few mushrooms.

“A _chair._ You were scared of a chair!”

Rumia flicked him in the ear. “That still doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous and evil! It’s probably like some kind of cursed throne!”

Kohta shrugged. “Well, okay, but it’s not doing anything.”

Rumia ignored him. She wanted to see what the horns were all about.

She continued to circle around the clearing, bringing the front of the chair into view. It was still hard to make out the details, but her eyes had adjusted pretty well to the darkness, and there was plenty of moonlight to see by. Just a little further, just a little further…

Then Kohta inhaled sharply. Rumia swallowed.

There, seated in the chair, was an amalgamation of bones, seemingly collected from a dozen different creatures. Big bear bones, slender bird bones, and even Human bones, all carefully pieced together in a massive humanoid shape swathed in ragged clothes that swirled in the night breeze.

And seated on the top of its shoulders was a grinning bear’s skull affixed with a pair of elk antlers.

“What the hell?” Rumia said.

“I…” Kohta took a step backward.

Rumia shot him a look. “Still think it’s not scary?”

“I…” Kohta’s face had gone pale. “Maybe we’d better, you know, leave it alone.”

Then the horned bear skull turned to fix its empty eye sockets right at them.

Rumia gasped and Kohta made a sound like he had gotten kicked in the gut. The two spun around and ran from the clearing as fast as their feet would take them.

…

“Eeeeeiiiiikoooooo!” Joshua called.

There was no response. He had been tramping through the forest for the better part of an hour now, and still had found _nothing._ No response, no tracks, no any sign of the kids or the monster that had taken them.

He was starting to get frantic. The youkai had flown through the air during their retreat. What if they simply had dropped down into the forest right at their lair? If so, then there was probably no trail to be found. He was just going to wander around aimlessly until something ended up picking him off as well.

Pushing those dark thoughts from his mind, Joshua muttered a short, terrified prayer under his breath. Those had been coming with greater regularity the longer his search went on, and they were becoming increasingly desperate.

Then something cracked under his feet.

Joshua paused, and then stepped back. He knelt down.

It was another pile of bones, those of some kind of big cat. From the look of things it had been dead and picked clean of meat for weeks, and now all sorts of things were growing all over its ribs and vertebrae.

Joshua closed his eyes. Actually, he hadn’t found nothing. He had been finding plenty of bones. No Human bones yet, thank God, but that might have already changed.

In his mind’s eye, he saw the ravaged and defiled remains of the children, their flesh and meat ripped from their bones and gobbled down, their bloody skeletons left for the scavengers and the remains of their clothing left to rot, until exposure to the elements erased all trace of their existence, leaving no evidence that their had ever been a Haruko, a Kana, a Hayate, an Eiko, or a Keine.

It was a horrific fate, and it happened all the time. There were probably bones from a few hundred children scattered all over the forest.

Joshua refused to let it happen to his.

He rose up and set off again. “Haaaaaaruuuuuuuuukooooooooo!” he called. “Can you hear-”

Something seized him by the back of his collar. Before he could react, he was swung around and slammed backfirst into a nearby tree trunk, with a forearm thrust across his windpipe.

Gasping like a fish, Joshua looked up to see two blazing red eyes in a coldly beautiful face, one framed by locks of shimmering silver hair and a mouth full of bared teeth.

“Quiet, you idiot!” Mokou hissed. “Do you _want_ to get yourself eaten? Because this is how you get yourself eaten!”

…

“Stop,” Kohta panted. “Stop. It’s not chasing us.”

Rumia might have argued the point, but to tell the truth she was willing to take any excuse to stop running. She was young and active, but hadn’t had to run that fast for that long before. Even footraces back home had only lasted a few seconds.

The two children collapsed in the shelter of a gnarled tree as they tried to catch their breath. Despite being completely out of breath and nursing aching legs, Rumia still made a point of checking to see if Kohta was correct.

Sure enough, there was no sign of a bony amalgamation pursuing them, though honestly it was so dark that simply not being visible didn’t count for much.

“What was that?” Kohta said.

“How the hell should I know?” Rumia said. “Seems like no matter how many stories we hear about this place, someone always has a new one.”

“Well, I guess now there’s one more.”

“I guess.” Then, despite the direness of their situation, Rumia couldn’t resist sneering at him. “So, still don’t believe in ghosts?”

Kohta sighed. “Oh, shut up, Rumia.”

“Seriously, that is easily the dumbest thing I have ever heard you say.”

“I said, shut _up,_ Rumia!”

Rumia did so, though she didn’t stop smirking.

After a while Kohta said, “Hey. Do you hear that?”

Rumia did, actually. In fact she had been about to ask Kohta the same question.

There was a low buzzing sound, like hundreds of insects beating their wings, barely perceptible over the sound of their own breathing, but now that it had been pointed out it was clearly not her imagination.

“Yeah.” Rumia’s face twisted up in confusion. “What the hell is that?”

Kohta shrugged.

Now there was a second sound, a deep, bass pulsing, like a sluggish heartbeat.

Something rustled the leaves nearby, beyond a tall tree. The two children tiptoed toward the tree. As they did, the buzzing grew shriller and shriller, until Rumia could feel it in her teeth. As for the thumping pulse, that only grew deeper and deeper, until Rumia could feel it in her gut.

They pressed their backs to the tree and peeked out around it.

Beyond the tree was a short but steep incline into a leaf-covered depression. And standing in those leaves with its back to them was a…a thing.

It was humanoid, with two legs to stand upon, a torso were a torso ought to be, two arms dangling from its shoulders, and an oval-shaped head on those shoulders, but that was where the similarities ended. Its body was just so horribly long and thin, with sticklike legs taller than either one of the children were, an emaciated body twice the length of a normal Human man at less than half the thickness, and arms that hung down to its knees. Its head was completely hairless, with beams of moonlight shining off of its pale dome. It wore a form-fitting outfit of black, and its flesh was as white as bleached bones.

The pulsing grew louder, or maybe that was just Rumia’s heartbeat. There was no question about it now, no “maybe it’s evil and maybe it’s just a pile of rocks and bones.” This was an actual youkai monster, one of the evil wanderers of the Youkai Forest.

The slender creature didn’t seem to have noticed them. It was calmly loping forward, taking long and slow strides, its footsteps barely disturbing the leaves. Rumia looked over to Kohta and tilted her head in the opposite direction. Kohta nodded.

Then the creature paused, and everything fell silent. The buzzing stopped, as did the pulse.

Rumia and Kohta went stiff.

The creature raised its head, as if sniffing the air. It reached up with one disturbingly long arm to touch the branches up above.

Then the buzzing returned, and Rumia swore she heard voices in it. The pounding returned as well, staring off slow but building to a thundering percussion, as the slender creature slowly turned around to look over its shoulder directly at them.

It had no face. From its pointed chin to the round dome of its head was nothing but a blank expanse of skin.

Oh, screw _this!_

With nothing left to gain from hiding, Rumia and Kohta again spun around and fled.


	8. The Spider's Web

The Spider's Web

"Mokou, wait!" Joshua said, holding up a hand. "Just calm down, okay?"

"Calm down? You want me to calm down?" Mokou shook her head in disgust. "Damn it, Josh! The hell are you even thinking? Walking about in the open like this, hollering away like a crazy person, it's a miracle that every youkai in a hundred kilometers hasn't zeroed in on you! Hell, maybe they have! Maybe you're just lucky I got to you first!"

Joshua had to admit that she had a point. Certainly his way of searching hadn't exactly been wise. But damn it, what was he supposed to do?

"I was just-"

"I know! You wanted to go save the kids! I heard the whole thing. But by the _gods,_ Josh! How the hell are you supposed to help anyone if you get eaten before you even find them? Or for that matter, even if they do hear you hollering, how are they supposed to answer? They got taken by _spiders!_ Spiders always at the very least gag their prey, and you'll just let those crawly fucks know you're coming!"

To this, Joshua had no answer.

"And if your God decides to blow all of your accumulated good will in getting you there unnoticed and undevoured, the hell where you planning to do then? Fight them? Sneak the kids out without any of them noticing? They're _spiders!_ They probably got them all webbed up, and you don't even know how to fight to begin with!"

Joshua slowly breathed out. "Yes, I do."

"What?"

"I _do_ know how to fight. I've done it before. A lot, actually."

Mokou stared at him. "Oh, yeah? You mean back where you came from? In the Outside World?"

"Yes," Joshua admitted.

"Well, that's great and all, but that won't help you here! The rules of fighting are totally different, and you don't have any of your fancy Outside World weapons to help you!"

"I know how to use danmaku," Joshua said. He pointed a finger at a nearby bush, and a spray of glowing blue orbs shot out to pulverize its leaves. "I can shoot bullets just fine."

"Well, goody golly-licious for you," Mokou said as she sarcastically clapped her hands. "So do they! And they've been using it a long longer than you, and definitely more regularly! Have you ever even gotten into a danmaku battle before? Ever had to shoot your bullets at someone outside of fun or practice?"

Joshua bowed his head. "No."

"Well, I guarantee that they have! Probably pretty regularly at that! You'll be lucky if you even managed to nick one of them before they riddle you full of holes! And _then_ they'll eat you!"

"I brought this though," Joshua said as he slid the anti-youkai knife from its sheathe. He held it up so Mokou could see the runes on its handle. "This will-"

Mokou's hand suddenly came up, smacking the bottom of the knife. Taken by surprise, Joshua's hand reflexively popped open and the knife sailed up and away.

Mokou snatched it out of the air. "You see how easily I did that?" she said, pointing the blade at the dumbstruck man. "You are completely out of your depth here. So go home, Joshua. Go home and let me handle this."

As flustered as he was, and as embarrassed as he was, Joshua still managed to keep his shaking legs planted on the ground beneath him. "No," he said.

"No?"

"No. I'm not going back." Joshua said. "Don't you understand? _I_ was the ones watching those kids. They got taken under my watch! I can't just stand aside and do nothing!"

Mokou's face twisted up in annoyance. "Oh, spare me from kind-hearted fools!" she groaned as she slapped a hand across her own face. "Josh, I have exactly _zero_ time for your guilty conscience, so back off and leave this to the professionals! Specifically, _me!"_

Joshua was a fair bit shorter than Mokou and thus had to incline his head to look her in the face. As such, he was in the perfect position to take notice of something moving in the branches behind her. Something with gleaming orange eyes. "Mokou…" he said.

"Because if any of those kids got hurt because you held me up, then I swear-"

"Mokou, watch out!"

The shadow had leapt from its branch right at Mokou's back. Joshua reached up to grab Mokou by the arm in hopes of pulling her out of the way.

Several things then happened, either at the same time or in such quick succession that it might as well have been at the same time.

First, the moment that Joshua's hands closed around Mokou's arm, it abruptly swung to the side, lifting him right off his feet and hurling him to the ground.

The second was the sound of something whistling through the air right over his head, something fast enough for him to feel the wind of its passing.

The third was a feminine voice grunting in pain and surprise.

Joshua rolled onto her back and sat up. He wasn't exactly sure what he was expecting to see, but what he found waiting for him surely wasn't it.

Mokou was standing balanced on one leg, the other held straight out, her foot shoved up against the throat of another woman. The woman was of medium height and slender in build, with grey-ish blue skin, softly glowing orange eyes, and bright orange hair tied into a pair of pigtails. She was wearing a sleeveless black-and-blue striped blouse, a tattered purple skirt, and black-and-orange stripped leggings. On her hand she wore a sort of cap that had a pair of floppy horns made of felt.

Mokou had her pinned up against a tree, and she was clawing at the foot pressing at her larynx.

"Juniper Spice," Mokou said. "Well, as I live and breathe."

Joshua gawked at her. "Wait, you know this person?"

"We've met," Mokou said. "We're not friends."

The youkai woman identified as Juniper choked and coughed. "I…I didn't know…it was you," she said. "I didn't!"

"Yeah, well, tough." Her foot still keeping Juniper trapped, Mokou flicked Joshua's knife up between her fingers.

A second later Joshua realized what she intended. "No! Mokou, wait!"

It was too late. Mokou hurled the knife. It sailed straight and true to embed itself right in Juniper's forehead, neatly between her eyes.

Juniper's whole body jerked and she let out a small squeak. Then, as bright red blood ran down her nose, her whole body started to convulse.

As Joshua stared in horror, Mokou lowered her foot. Juniper stayed where she was, shaking and writhing as black steam rose up from where the knife was stuck. Foamy spittle bubbled up from her mouth to drip down her chin.

Then she slumped lifelessly, and her body began to dissolve.

Orangish vapor billowed into the air to disappear, and when it had all dissipated, nothing was left of Juniper Spice, no evidence of what had happened to her save for the knife itself, which was still partially embedded in the trunk of the tree.

"You killed her," Joshua said in disbelief.

Mokou calmly grabbed the knife's handle and yanked it out. "Uh, yeah? She was trying to kill us. Hell, she probably had been stalking you for some time. If I hadn't come along she would've gotten you."

"But…"

"Relax, Josh. She's a youkai. Getting smoked like that is part of their everyday life. Give it a few minutes, and she'll come right back with a bad mood and a healthy amount of respect."

"You…Wait, are you sure?"

Sighing, Mokou tossed the knife into the dirt in front of Joshua. "Yes, Josh. I'm sure. I've killed her before. For fuck's sake, you've been in Gensokyo how long? This is basic youkai stuff."

"Oh." Despite having lived in Gensokyo for many years, there were still some aspects of it that he had trouble wrapping his head around. He picked up the knife and stood up.

Mokou looked around and sighed. "You're really set on saving the kids, aren't you?"

Joshua slid the knife back into its sheath. Then he looked up into Mokou's eyes. "Yes," he said. "I am."

"Fuck," Mokou muttered. "If I send you back you'll just get snapped up. Gods only know how you made it this far." She shook her head and sighed. "Fine, fine. Tag along if you must, but stay out of my way, don't slow me down, don't do anything stupid, and as much as I like you, if it comes down to either saving you or saving the kids, I'll be sure to say something nice at your funeral. Got it?"

Harsh, but completely fair. "I understand."

"Fine." Mokou turned and headed off. "Keep up, then. Rumia and Kohta went off on their own to search as well, so we have to find them too."

Joshua stumbled. "Wait, they did _what?"_

"You heard me! Now shut up and keep up!"

…

"Okay," Kohta panted as he leaned up against a tree. "I think…I think we lost him."

The effort of trying to catch her breath had bent Rumia down over her knees. "You _think?"_ she got out between gasps.

"Well…he hasn't…caught us…has he?"

"Maybe…maybe he's…in the trees…and…" Something tickled Rumia's ear. "Stop touching me!"

"I'm not."

"Then…what was…"

_Crunch. Crunch. Crunch._

The two children froze.

_Crunch. Crunch. Rip. Snap._

"Is that it?" Rumia whispered. "Is it coming?"

"I don't…it doesn't really _sound_ like footsteps." Kohta tried to straighten up, but then suddenly jerked back. "Hey!"

"Huh?"

"I'm stuck! Something's sticking to me!"

Something tickled Rumia's ear again. She slapped it away.

Her hand was suddenly filled with several silky, sticky strands.

"Uh…" She pulled it away from her head. In her hand was something thinner than paper and glistening white.

She then slowly looked up to where Kohta was still trying to free himself from the trunk of the tree. The tree was covered with the stuff, like a paper sheathe.

"Kohta, stop," Rumia whispered.

"What?"

"Look…up."

Catching her tone, Kohta swallowed and obeyed.

The entire forest around them was draped with what looked like a silk net. It covered the tree trunks, it was laid across the tree branches, it was even laid across the forest floor in places. Here and there things that looked like giant moth cocoons hung from the branches. One or two of them were twitching. Most of them were not.

Rumia felt the blood drain from her face. Those were no cocoons.

"Webs," Kohta said hoarsely. "Spiderwebs."

_Crunch. Munch. Slurp._

The two children exchanged one brief look. Then Rumia hastily ripped the web from her fingers and seized Kohta's arm with both hands and yanked with all her might, ripping him free from the trunk.

"We need to-" Kohta started to say.

_Crunch._

Something had broken under Rumia's feet. The two of them looked down.

A half-buried Human skull grinned up at them, webs draped over it like a burial shroud. Rumia's foot had landed right onto its right eye socket, caving it in.

"Ah!" Rumia was about to run again, but then Kohta's hands clamped down on her bicep.

"No!" he hissed. "Get a grip! You start running and screaming again, and the spiders will hear us!"

Every instinct in Rumia was screaming for her to completely disregard Kohta's point and run as fast as she could while screaming as loud as possible.

But she had done that twice already. And each time it had just sent her into an even scarier situation. So she bit back on the screams she felt rising and slowly removed her foot from within the skull.

Then they turned in the direction of the sounds. Up ahead was a ring of web-covered trees, and within seemed to be a small clearing.

The sounds were coming from the clearing, and between the web-covered trees she could see movement.

Rumia and Kohta exchanged a glance. Then, gripping tightly to each other's hands, they crept toward the clearing, careful to avoid the webbing on the ground and anything that might be another pile of remains.

The clearing was playing host to a ghastly scene. The whole place was draped with webs, and weirdly enough there was furniture scattered about. Rumia saw a bookshelf filled with what looked like odd trinkets and weird bones; a hat stand holding a top hat, a bonnet, a straw hat, and a weird thing that looked like a stripy inverted funnel; a grandfather clock; a few easy chairs; a cabinet holding chipped tea cups; and four beds. Strapped to four of the trees along the perimeter was a child, each of their bodies partially wrapped up like decaying mummies. Rumia's heart skipped a beat. Keine was among them, her face pale and her body limp. Rumia couldn't tell if she was breathing or not.

Fastened to another tree was Kana, who for once was silent. And next to her was Haruko, and next to Haruko was Hayate.

Unlike the others, Haruko was wide awake and staring. Her mouth was gagged with webs to keep her from screaming, but judging by the look in her eyes she would if she could. She was staring at what was happening in the center of the clearing.

There, the four spider youkai that had attacked the Children's Home were gathered. Now that Rumia saw them up close, they seemed even more monstrous than they had when viewed at a distance in the bright sunlight. They seemed to be the kin of that slender thing in the woods, with limbs that were twisted, elongated, and malformed, with twice as many joints than they ought to have. Their necks were longer than they had any right to be, and their grey hair almost looked like spiderwebs themselves. Two of them were wearing torn and filthy dresses, one that once had been white with blue stripes and the other a color that might have been orange once. Another had on a long, red coat over a shredded black shirt and a black skirt. The one male had on the remains of what had once been black slacks, a black vest hanging unbuttoned over a filthy white shirt, and a grey tie hanging loosely around his neck like a noose.

All four of them were paying little attention to their ensnared captives. They were crouching on their haunches around a dinner table, tearing at something with their hands and mouths. Rumia couldn't make out what it was, but she caught glimpses of something red. One of the spider-youkai raised its head. Blood was running down its gaunt face, and there was something white and stringy hanging from its mouth. It gulped it down and ducked its head back down again.

Then a human arm flopped out of the cluster. It was wearing a grey sleeve, and a pale hand hung limply at its end. Blood ran down the fingers to drip to the ground.

Rumia's hand went to her mouth. By process of elimination there really was only one person that could be.

_Eiko._

"Oh my gods," Kohta whispered, so low that even Rumia barely heard him. "Oh my gods, oh my gods, oh my gods."

As for Rumia, she didn't have the stomach even for whispered curses. Sour nausea twisted up her gut, and she was able to keep from retching only by constantly reminding herself that the spiders would hear the noise and eat them as well.

The two of them had never liked Eiko. She had been whiny and nosy and pretty mean most of the time, always doing whatever Haruko had told her to do, always butting into their business and helping push around the smaller kids.

But sweet spirits, nobody had ever, even in their darkest, most private fantasies, wished something like _that_ upon her!

If there was one blessing that could be gleaned by the whole terrible scene, it was that the four spider-youkai were so absorbed with feasting on poor Eiko's remains that they were paying no attention to either their remaining captives or the two invaders that had trespassed on their nest.

It was time.

Rumia knelt down to spit out the wad of saliva her nausea had produced and swallowed back as much of the sick feeling as she could. Then she tugged on Kohta's sleeve and angled her head toward where the other kids were being held.

Kohta's eyes went wide and he emphatically shook his head.

Baring her teeth, Rumia pointed to where Keine was hanging. Then she pointed at the gruesome feast.

Kohta's face twisted up as the impulse to flee joined forces with the sheer terror surging through him and waged war on his desire to save his friends. In the end the latter won out, and he let out a small sigh through his nostrils and nodded.

The two of them crept around the clearing, careful not to step on anything too loud, especially careful not to keep glancing over at what the spiders were doing, but it was difficult.

Fortunately, the other kids weren't fully cocooned like the other bodies they had seen. They only had a couple silk restraints splattered onto their wrists and calves, pinning them to the tree trunks. Webs were also smeared over their mouths as gags, though the spiders had left their eyes free, probably to make them watch.

The first that they reached was Hayate, unfortunately. Rumia and Kohta produced the knives they had brought along and went to work. The webs were strong enough to keep her from tearing away on her own strength, but they parted like grass beneath the steel blades. The enchantments were working.

Hayate seemed to have passed out, but after they managed to free one leg and one hand she began to stir. She didn't look at all well though. Even with the tremendous scare of what she had been through, her skin felt cold and clammy. Even in the pale moonlight Rumia could see dark veins on her arms and around her neck.

As they worked to bring her down, Rumia glanced at the other kids. Haruko, the only one still awake, had noticed them. She was staring with wide eyes, her hands twitching beneath the webs. She glanced quickly at what the spiders were doing to her friend and then back at them, silently begging them to hurry.

As Rumia and Kohta lowered Hayate to the ground, she started to come around. Rumia started to cut away the gag, but then Kohta covered her hand and shook his head. For a moment Rumia was confused, but then she understood. Hayate was going to be confused and scared when she woke up, and if she screamed, that was it for all of them.

Sure enough, Hayate opened her eyes moments later. She blinked groggily and squinted up at them. She frowned in bewilderment, as if she had no memory of where she was or why she was there.

But then enough pieces apparently pieced themselves together in her mind and her eyes suddenly bulged out.

"Shhh!" Rumia slapped a hand over Hayate's gagged mouth to prevent any sound from escaping. "Quiet!" she hissed into the terrified girl's ear. "We're here to save you, but you have to be _quiet!"_

Hayate was trembling violently, but she managed a slight nod.

Hoping that she would keep her word, Rumia and Kohta then turned their attention to the next bound captive, which thankfully was Keine.

Keine also had weird veiny blotches on her skin, but she started stirring more quickly when Rumia and Kohta touched her. They hastily cut the sticky strands away and brought her down to the ground.

"Keine!" Kohta whispered. "Can you hear me?"

Keine sleepily blinked her eyes. She moaned beneath her gag.

"Shhh!" Kohta put his face right in front of hers so that she would be able to read his lips. _Don't say_ anything. _Youkai are near. Stay still and quiet._

Keine blinked. Then she stiffened as the memories caught up with her. She glanced at him and Rumia and nodded as well. However, she did sit up and throw her arms around the two of them, and they did the same. Though she was still tense with fear and revulsion, Rumia finally felt a small bit of hope. They had gotten Keine back. They weren't out of the woods yet, but they at least had her.

Keine, at least, could be trusted. She angled her head to one side and let her friends cut away her gag. Once it was out of the way she started clawing at her mouth and silently gagged as she tried to get rid of any remaining strands. One particularly large wad made her shiver with disgust.

Rumia caught sight of Hayate staring at them. Once she had Rumia's eye, the other girl pointed at the wad of silk covering her mouth. Rumia shook her head. Hayate blinked, then she scowled and let out an angry snort.

Two down, two to go. And the next was the one that they wanted to save the least. Still, there were some things that even blood feuds were suspended for.

Haruko had been watching the whole time. As they approached, the only two fingers she had free started to rapidly beat against the tree trunk.

"Stop it!" Rumia hissed. "Do you want them to-"

"Oi!"

One of the spiders suddenly turned toward Haruko, his neck curving around like a snake. Rumi and Kohta ducked out of sight.

"Stop makin' dat noise!" the spider growled, his voice thick and gummy. "If yer so impatient, den it'll be _yer_ turn once we're done wit' yer itty-bitty friend 'ere!"

The other spiders laughed, and they all went back to their meal.

Rumia forced herself to release the breath she had been holding. Her heart was still pounding away like a war drum though.

Baring her teeth, she set back to work, cutting away at Haruko's left hand and leg while Kohta worked on her right side.

Once she was free, Haruko had no problem with being led behind the tree and out of sight. She immediately threw both arms around Kohta's shoulders and squeezed him tight while she hyperventilated.

Rumia's right eye twitched, but she did nothing.

Kohta winced but tolerated it, though Rumia suspected that was more due to no wanting to risk attracting attention than respecting Haruko's feelings.

"Okay, okay," Kohta muttered with an awkward pat on the bat. "Um, you gotta let go. Seriously. I need to go help Kana. Let go, please."

Rumia rolled her eyes. Then she saw that Hayate was up on her knees and was slowly crawling toward Haruko, her hands outstretched and tears pouring from her eyes.

That should work. Rumia took her by the elbow and helped her come in closer. Then she jostled Haruko's shoulder to get her attention. Once Haruko saw that Hayate was near, she immediately abandoned Kohta to seize her remaining friend in another squeezing embrace, and unlike Kohta, Hayate was more than happy to reciprocate.

Kohta shook his head and sighed. Then he caught the look Rumia was shooting him.

 _What?_ he mouthed.

Rolling her eyes, Rumia just went over to where Kana was hanging.

The weird girl looked like she was the worst off. The dark veins were more pronounced on her skin, and she was sweating profusely. What was more, she didn't stir at all when Rumia and Kohta started working to free her.

Rumia swallowed. She prayed to whatever meager gods that would hear her that Kana was still alive and kept cutting.

The girl barely seemed to weigh a thing as they took her to the others and laid her down. Keine, who seemed to have shaken off whatever the spiders had done to her quicker than the still tearfully embracing Haruko and Hayate, knelt down at Kana's side. She leaned over to place her ear against Kana's chest while holding a finger under her nose. Rumia held her breath as she waited for the diagnosis.

Keine sat back and nodded. She held up a hand with her index finger and her thumb only a few centimeters apart. Rumia and Kohta understood. Kana was breathing, but only just. They needed to get her back as quickly as possible.

Kohta crouched down and lifted Kana onto his back. He nodded to the others and tilted his head back the way he and Rumia had come. They started to creep away, but then Hayate seized Rumia by the arm. She jabbed a finger at the web still covering her mouth.

Oh, fine. Rumia pulled out her knife and went to work cutting it away. Like the others, Hayate gagged as she spat out all the gunk in her mouth.

"All right," Rumia whispered. "Now let's go!"

Hayate looked at her like she had lost her mind. "No!" she whispered back. "What about Eiko? We can't leave Eiko!"

Rumia felt like she had been kicked in the gut. Oh gods, Hayate had passed out before Eiko had been eaten. She didn't know!

Seeing the way everyone was looking at her, Hayate just stared back in confusion. "What? Why are you guys-"

"Welp, dis one's 'bout done," one of the spiders said suddenly. "Onta da second course!"

"All right, all right, keep yer pants on. Which one?"

"Betta make it da 'ickle blonde bit. She dun't look like she got much left in 'er, so we'd bedda get 'er on da table while she's still fresh."

Oh shit.

"Go, go, go!" Kohta whispered.

The hurried away, with Haruko practically dragging the still-confused Hayate along.

"'ey, da fook?" a spider called out. "Where'd da 'ickle morsels go?"

"Are ya fookin' serious? Dey was jus' dere!"

"Well, dey ain't now!"

"Damn it all. Spread out and search! Dey couldn't 'ave gone far!"

The horrible sound of sharp claws scrambling on the trees filled the air. The children increased their gait.

Then a horribly long arm snaked out of the trees in front of them. It ended in a slender hand with fingers that looked as long as Rumia's forearms, each topped by a pointed nail caked with dirt and drying blood.

The hand planted itself on the ground, the elbow bending at an unnatural angle. Another such arm came into view, the hand grabbing onto a tree trunk.

A gaunt face followed, one with hollow cheeks, a pointed chin, and dark hair that hung around the face like a funeral shroud. The face's eyes were sunken and dark, each with four tiny white pupils that glimmered like candles in the dark. Dark blood still was smeared around its pale lips.

The face swung around on its elongated neck to leer at the children. "Well, well, well, what have we 'ere?" the spider said as she ambled out of the clearing. "A wee 'ickle rescue attempt? 'ey, chaps! C'mere!"

The other spiders ambled their way toward her, one loping his way on the ground while the other two crawled across the trees. "You 'ave got ta' be fookin' kiddin' me," growled the male spider.

"Nah, see? Dey missed deir friends so much dat dey come 'ere ta' try ta' save 'em! Ain't dey precious?"

"Precious 'ickle dumplin's," growled another. "So kind dey are. Now we 'ave enuff fer breakfast _an'_ dinner tummarah!"

Rumia couldn't move. Fear had frozen her feet in place. She couldn't even blink. All she could do was stand stiff and still and stare as the four malformed monsters crawled ever closer.

 _This is it,_ she found herself thinking. _This is how I die. Ripped apart like my family. And I still couldn't save anyone. What a stupid way to go._

Then some blue and glowing shot through the air to splash against the lead spider's cheek.

The one that had been hit flinched back. She held a claw to the point of impact. "Da fook was…"

Then everyone, spider and child alike, turned to stare at the culprit.

Haruko was standing with one hand outstretched, index and middle fingers pointing out, while she held onto her wrist with the other hand. Every centimeter of her was shaking with fear, but it was clear that she had been the one responsible.

"You can shoot _bullets?"_ Kohta said in disbelief.

Haruko glanced at him and nodded. Then she inhaled sharply and fired another blue projectile.

This one glanced off the spider's shoulder. This time, she looked more annoyed than anything. "Really?" she growled. "Fookin' danmaku? Sorry, chitlins. But youz is playin' a grown-up's game." She lifted a hand, which then began glowing purple. "But if it's a danmaku battle yah be wantin', den Auntie Edna is more than 'appy to play!"

Before Edna could fire off her first round, Kohta let go of one of Kana's legs to thrust his hand into his pocket. When he drew it back out, it was holding onto a small piece of paper.

"Uh, _hit the deck!"_ he screamed as he tossed the paper forward. Then he threw both himself and Kana to the ground and covered his eyes. Everyone else did the same. Even the spiders flinched back in anticipation of the spellcard attack.

Nothing happened.

Rumia looked up. The spellcard was lying on the ground, obviously _not_ activated. The spiders, who had all retreated back and covered their faces, were now lowering their arms and glancing at one another.

"Huh," the male said. Then the four of them leered back down at the children. "Well den."

"You idiot!" Hayate screamed. "You have to say the spellcard's name!"

"Huh? Oh, right!" Kohta snatched the card back up and thrust it forward again as the spiders resumed their advance. _"Phoenix Sign: Magnificent Inferno!"_

And then the forest erupted with light.


	9. The Black Circle

Even before the spellcard had left Kohta's fingers, Rumia was already turning to run. When the darkness of the night was swallowed up by a flash of light so bright that it banished the shadows and turned the black sky overhead blue, she had already started to accelerate into a run.

And then a wave of force and heat hit her from behind, nearly knocking her off her feet. Rumia stumbled, somehow managed to keep her balance, and used the momentum to give herself an extra push into a headlong sprint.

The white light cooled, to be replaced with a pulsing red. The forest behind them was on fire. As for the spiders, she could hear them shrieking. Rumia didn't even have the wherewithal to take satisfaction in that and hope that all four were burning like torches. She just prayed that it would delay them long enough for her and her friends to get away.

Running through the webbed-up part of the woods was nearly impossible, and more than once her legs got snagged or something unseen slipped beneath her. At once point her shin hit a low sheet of webbing that was stretched across like a net. It swiped her legs right out from under her and she found herself pitching forward.

Before taking what undoubtedly would have been a fatal landing, a pair of arms grabbed her and hauled her back up. Gasping, Rumia jerked her head around to see Haruko holding onto to her.

The two girls stared at each other for half a second, and then a shrill howl of rage echoed through the forest.

"Run," Haruko said. Rumia nodded and did just that.

Soon they had left the webs of the spiders' domain and were fleeing through the rotting leaves of the forest proper. Rumia didn't know if any of the other kids were even with her anymore. She could hear s _ome_ of the others panting as they ran alongside her, but she couldn't spare the time to see if they had all made it out.

_No._

_They didn't._

_You're short one. You'll always be short one._

Rumia gasped and increased her speed. As horrific as the image of Eiko's butchered body was, it did make for a great motivator.

And then she heard the voice.

"Where yah goin', me 'ickle dumplings?" called a nauseatingly phlegmy voice. It was coming from somewhere behind them. "Yah can't get away from Minty!"

The spiders were coming.

"Run," Rumia muttered under her breath. "Run. Run. Run. Run."

The word fell in time with the rhythm of her soles pounding the ground, and soon she forgot that she was even saying it. All that mattered was movement and speed. All that mattered was escape.

Something whizzed past her. Rumia started for a moment, certain that she had been caught, but it turned out to be Keine. The tiny girl was speeding ahead with Kana's still unconscious body draped onto her back.

If she had the breath for it, Rumia would have laughed. Oh, of _course_ Keine would be the fastest, despite having been knocked out by spider venom and having to bear the weight of another girl on her own! Sure, that was totally fair!

Keine was pulling further and further ahead, sometimes even leaping fully over especially deep piles of leaves while Rumia was forced to skirt around them. As odd as it sounded, Rumia was starting to wish she had been the one to be knocked out by spider venom, then she would be the one carried out and away.

Rumia skirted around yet another tree, and then another, and another. She tried to keep her focus on Keine's back (or Kana's, to be more accurate), but her friend was pulling further and further ahead, and Rumia was torn between rooting for her to run completely out of sight or screaming for her to wait for them. She wanted Keine to escape with Kana, yes, but she also didn't want to be left behind!

She sidestepped yet another tree only to take a bad step and have her legs slip out from under her. She pitched forward and landed in a mess of rotting leaves.

Gasping, she tried to stand up, but as it turned out the leaves were deep and wet, and they sucked at her legs.

"Help!" she screamed as she struggled.

Suddenly something grabbed her. Rumia screamed and lashed out at it with her fingernails, only to have her wrist seized.

"Let go of me! Let go-"

"Rumia, it's me!"

It was Kohta. Rumia stopped trying to attack him.

He pulled her out of the leaves. "Come on!" Rumia nodded, and the two of started to run again.

Then something seized them both from behind and hoisted them into the air.

Both Rumia and Kohta screamed in terror as they were carried along up into the trees and over the forest. Rumia thrashed with her limbs in her desperation to get away, but she was caught good.

She was hauled along at a nauseatingly high speed as the creature leapt from tree to tree, each leap jarring her body terribly. The forest floor zipped by below her, coming up close too fast only to retreat again as her captor leapt up. Gawking, Rumia could do nothing but stare as they passed over the others. She saw Haruko and Hayate holding hands as they stumbled along on poison-weakened legs. She saw Keine zipping along with Kana still carried over her shoulder.

And then she was falling again, the ground rushing toward her face. It stopped right before it hit, but there was no time to feel relieved, as she and Kohta were then hurled right at Keine and Kana.

The collision knocked them senseless, and Rumia found herself tumbling into a gangly heap. Stars filled her vision, and she fought to reassert some measure of control.

Untangling herself from the thicket of limbs, Rumia rolled onto her knees and looked up.

She wished that she hadn't.

She was kneeling next to Kohta, Keine, and Kana, the latter who was still unconscious. Haruko and Hayate had caught up to them, and were now standing frozen in fear.

And crouching over them was one of the spiders.

The spiders had been horrible at a distance, but this close she was simply terrifying! Her skin was gaunt and grey and patterned with lines and pockmarks, like a web itself. Her wispy hair floated eerily around her head, never hanging still. Her clothing was torn and soiled, like it had been taken off a badly decomposed corpse. Her limbs were far, _far_ too long, and had too many joints.

But the worst of it were her eyes, both one of them made up of four smaller eyes all squished together, and each one of those were yellow, crusty, and full of malice.

The monstrous youkai woman slowly looked from one terrified face to the next, her neck gliding back and forth like a snake. "Awww, did'ja tink yah could geddaway dat easy?" she said, her black teeth quivering in her mouth. "So sorry tah dassipoint, but yah is gonna be-"

Then something red and glowing zipped past Rumia's vision to splash against the spider's gaunt cheek, like a flying ember from a fire.

The spider paused in surprise. She touched her cheek, found no damage, and then turned her attention to the culprit.

Haruko was still sprawled onto her back, but her arm was outstretched and pointed right at the spider's face, trembling as it was.

"Really?" the spider said, her multifaceted eyes narrowing. "Danmaku again? Fookin' really?" She then made a small, almost casual gesture.

A spray of sickly green diamonds spewed out of her fingers to hail all over the children. Rumia covered herself with her arms, but they still stung her flesh where they hit.

Rumia had never actually been hit with danmaku before. It was supposed to be nonlethal and incapable of causing serious injury, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt. She had always been kind of curious though, but none of the grown-ups had ever agreed hit her with even the smallest bullet.

Now she knew why.

It felt like getting assaulted by a swarm of enraged wasps. It felt like falling into a pit of needles. Dozens of tiny pinpricks of pain erupted all the backs of her hands and where they managed to cut through her clothes. She drew herself up to her full height, which was far, far, _far_ too tall. "Jus' fer dat, girlie, we gonna save yah fer last. But we ain't gonna let you 'ang in peace, oh no. Every time we eats one of yer friends, they'll have one of yer fingers stuck in deir eyes as a garnish! And when we does gets to yah, we'll be sure to split yah open nice an' slow." She started to advance on Haruko, who was now shaking all over. "Remember what we dids to yer 'ickle friend? Oh, we's gonna do so much worse to yah."

Haruko tried to get up and run, but one of the spider's arms came down right next to her. She went the other way, only for the other arm to cut her off.

The spider knocked her back to the ground with one casual swipe. She leaned in close, bringing her face in close so that Haruko had to stare her in the eyes. "'Ell, mebbe I'll 'ave Andy 'ave some fun wit' yah. Make a proppa lady outta yah before we slice yah open." Her black lips parted in a hellish grin, revealing her rows and rows of quivering teeth. "Or bedda yet, mebbe right afta we does the splittin'. Give 'im more 'oles tah-"

Haruko thrust her hand forward again and shot her right in her hideous eye.

"ARGH!" the spider stumbled back, both her hands clutching her face. "Me eye! Me fookin' _eye!"_

"GO!" Keine screamed.

She didn't need to say it twice. As the spider pitched this way and that, the children scrambled to their feet and ran.

The forest was already dark, and with her vision now blurred by tears, Rumia could barely see anything in front of her. But she kept running and running and running, because to slow even the smallest bit meant death.

She wasn't nearly fast enough.

Something snared her leg and yanked her back. Screaming, Rumia clawed at the ground and came up with nothing but handfuls of cold, hard clay. She looked down and saw her right leg encased in a formless white mass, which was connected to a long, sticky rope. To either side of her, her friend were finding themselves in the same predicament.

The spider hadn't chased them. She didn't need to. She had merely snagged all of them with her webs and was now reeling them in like the hooked fish that they were.

"Niiiiiiiiiiice try," she sneered, her wounded eye still shut tight. "But if yah tink fer one minute dat I'm gonna-"

Then she stopped in mid-sentence. And she looked around.

Rumia wiped her eyes with the back of her hand to get a better look. The spider had stopped reeling them in and was now frantically looking this way and that at her surroundings. What was more, she seemed quite alarmed.

"Oh, fook _dis!"_ the spider cried as she hurled her weblines away. From there she took off on all fours, skittering like ancestors as fast as she could go, leaving her terrified and befuddled prey behind.

…

Putting out the fires caused by the little Human brat's spellcard had ended up taking several minutes, and by the time that the Youkai Forest spider clan had managed to snuff the worst of it out, most of their home had been destroyed and their dinner had fled.

"Figgers," Andy groused between vomiting great globs of webbing onto any burning patches. "Jus' figgers, now don' it? Too good tah be true!"

"I tol' yah," Muffet snapped at him. She spat a gooey white wad at what little remained of her chair, choking out the rest of the embers. "I tol' yah all it be a dumb idea! Only lead tah trubble, I says." She turned her head toward Edna, who had been the primary organizer behind the plan. "But did yah listen? Fookin' _nooooooooooooo!"_

"Shut yer gob!" Edna sneered.

"Oi, mates, let's jus' do what dah creepy Hummin sez an' waltz right intah a buncho Hummins in Hummin land an' take off wit some o' dey spawn! Idda be _eazy,_ yah said!"

"I said shuttit!"

"Dere's no way dey find us, yah said! We gets paid an' we gets eazy food!"

"Shut! Yer! Damn! Web 'ole!"

"Now likkit dis place!" Edna shouted at her sister. "We gets unly _one_ good meal, an' den dah whole place, jus' goes up in flames!"

Andy sighed. When those two started to get into it, they could go on and on for hours.

As they argued, he looked bleakly around at the remains of their home. The trees had taken only minimal damage, but the furniture was mostly gone, as was the intricate network of webbing they had set up around the place. Moving around was going to be a pain until it was replaced, and they were back to square one when it came to their possessions.

Damn it. Damn it all. Back to poverty.

"Well, at leezt I don' 'ave a big fat 'ead like you!" Muffet screeched.

"Dah _fook_ you goin' on aboot? We're _twins,_ yah daft twat! Our 'eads look dah fookin' same!"

Then Andy heard something. "'ey," he called at them. "Quiet!"

"No wunnda evahthin's dah shits den, if I gotta share me life wit' _you!"_

"I said _quiet!"_ Andy roared.

That did the trick. "What is it?"

Andy held up his claws in front of his lips. Then he pointed to the treetops.

Sure enough, it was Minty. She was scrambling toward them and looked quite disgruntled while doing it too. She also didn't have any of the brats like she was supposed to.

"Well?" Andy demanded. "Dah fook are dey?"

"Likkle bloodbags gon' run right inta dah bone grove," Minty hissed. "Ain't no way I'm gon' in dere!"

Andy slapped a hand across his face. "An' you jus' _let_ 'em?"

"Hell nah am I gon' anywhere _near_ dat fookin' nightmare! Let 'em find dah Black Circle for deyselves!"

"Whaddya tink'll happen tah dem?" Muffet said.

Before Andy could respond, a new voice, one that was cold as the heart of winter and sharp as Dragon's teeth, spoke from the dark. "Yes, tell me. What do you think happened to them? I'm interested!"

Before Andy could even begin to register that something was wrong, everything got so much worst.

Something came whistling through the air to strike Andy's temple so hard that his brain was rattled in his skull, and he went down.

Muffet screeched and bounded toward the intruder, or at least that had probably been her intention. In truth, she didn't get much further than the bounding stage before a flash of red and white appeared at her side to seize her by the arm and the hair. Her momentum was redirected, and she was driven facefirst into the ground. She tried to rise up, but two hands grabbed her by the head and gave it a swift twist. Before she could even scream, each one of her limbs was seized up in turn and wrenched this way and that, their joint yanked from their sockets with audible pops. A second later a boot slammed into her back, breaking her spine with a sickening crunch.

Edna tried to scamper up the side of a tree, but then something that looked like a bright red firefly whizzed through the air and flew right in her mouth. She gasped in surprise, swallowing it instinctively. Edna tried to spit it out, but then she choked, she coughed, and she began to scream. Smoke poured out of her mouth, ears, and eyes, and then red flames erupted from beneath her skin. With a piercing shriek she fell to the ground and started writhing as her whole body burned.

Minty was already in full retreat. Given that she was high in the treetops she had the best chance of it, or so she thought.

Unfortunately, a blazing fireball shot from seemingly nowhere like a comet to his her right in the stomach, knocking her from the branches. Before she even hit the ground the blur of red and white slammed into her. There was a confusing moment where the two bodies pitched back and forth in midair, but then a pair of powerful hands seized Minty's forehead and chin from behind. A sharp twist, and she found herself no longer able to move.

Those hands remained where they were, holding Minty's moaning head in place. Then Minty's whole body jerked, and she began to twitch and convulse. Steam rose up from the palms on her cheeks as the veins beneath her skin started to turn red, brightening the pale skin around them to a horrid pink. Minty whimpered and cried and choked as steaming red tears dripped from her reddening eyes.

Andy tried to right himself. His vision was still swimming and his ears still ringing and his limbs felt unwilling to respond to his frantic insistence that they hurry up and get him the hell out of there. As he struggled to push himself up, he saw something come his way, the red and white blur striding across the ground purposefully in his direction, dragging Minty's writhing form by the hair.

"No, by all means, go on," said the cold, hard voice. A hand seized Andy by the throat, and he was lifted right off the ground and had his back slammed into the trunk of a nearby tree. And as he gasped and writhed, he found himself facing a pair of burning red eyes, ones filled with a strange, yet terrifying, mix of cold rage and hot fire. "Tell me what the bone grove is."

…

Though the spider had wrapped all of their legs up pretty good, they still had the anti-youkai knives that Kohta and Rumia had brought along, and they still worked just as well at cutting the sticky strands away.

Kohta slashed away at the mess encasing his legs until he had gotten enough of it off to separate his legs and stand up. Clumps of dirt were now glued to his lower legs and feet, but at least he could walk. Then he went to work on his friends.

"What happened?" Haruko squeaked. "Why'd she leave?"

"You rather she didn't?" Rumia said.

"Shut up, Rumia!" Haruko was trying to hold still to let Kohta work, but she was unable to keep her body from trembling. "Did you hear the things she was threatening to do to me? I saw what they did to Eiko! I saw the whole thing!"

At this, Hayate abruptly sat upright. "What?" she said in a small voice. "Is…Is that why we left her behind? Did they…did…"

"They made me watch!" Haruko screamed. "I woke up first, and when they saw that I was awake they _laughed_ at me! They laughed and told me to enjoy the show! They already had her on the table, and they did something to wake her up too. They _waited_ until she was awake, they _waited_ until she could see what they were doing, and then they…they…" The rest of her words were swallowed up by a strangled sob. Haruko buried her face in her hands as she cried.

"Dead?" Hayate said after a beat. "Eiko's _dead?"_

"Yeah," Kohta said. "Sorry."

Hayate slowly laid back and stared up at the black sky. Soon they could all hear her weeping as well.

Rumia had nothing at all to say. It was not often that she felt the slightest bit sorry for Haruko or her friends, but she couldn't imagine having to watch something like that happen to Keine or Kohta.

She waited until Kohta had freed them all. Her legs were a little wobbly, but fortunately she was unhurt. All the stickiness on her legs were a problem though. She grabbed up handfuls of dirt and slathered them on. Hopefully that would provide her with some friction.

"Come on," Kohta said as he sheathed the knives. "I don't know why she ran off, but we need to get moving."

"What for?" Haruko said bitterly. "If they don't get us then something else will. We're all going to die here."

"Hey, don't talk like that!" Keine said. "We made it this far. That's, like, at least three-fourths of the way back! The worst is over, so we just-"

"Don't _say_ that!" Haruko cried.

"Huh?"

"Don't say that the worst is over! That'll just make things get even more bad!"

She had a point, Rumia had to admit. After all, this was supposedly one of the places where superstitions went to grow larger and more powerful.

In the meantime, she was starting to wonder about exactly where they had ended up. For one, she had noted a distinct lack of leaves on the ground for the first time since they had gone into this godsforsaken forest. It was just plain dirt and tree roots. There weren't even any fallen twigs or pieces of bark.

Well, whatever. That was one mystery she was content to remain a mystery. Let the forest keep its secrets; she just wanted to get out.

"Speaking of which, why did she run off like that?" Kohta said. "I mean, anything that would scare her has to be a problem, right?"

"Who cares?" Rumia said. "Let's just _go_ already."

"He has a point," Keine said. "I mean, that was pretty weird."

"Well, I don't care!" Rumia snapped as she continued stomping forward. "All I know is that we're still stuck in this stupid forest, with hungry youkai coming to-" She turned around to find a hideously deformed skull leering at her. "-gah!"

Rumia leapt back away from the ugly thing. Fortunately, it didn't pursue her, but that didn't make it any less terrifying.

The skull was jet-black and looked like it had been partially melted. Parts of it were just drooping down in big drips of solid bone to dangle off of its twisted lower jaw like stalactites.

The skull was partially embedded in the trunk of an equally black, equally twisted, and equally dead tree. In fact, the rest of the skeleton was. It was like whoever it used to be had been standing too close to the tree when a massive wave of heat and force just melted them together.

"Wh-wh-wha-" was all Rumia could think of to say.

Then Keine cleared her throat. "Er, Rumia?"

Rumia looked at her. It was then that she realized that in her panic, she had leapt fully into Keine's arms and thrown her arms around her smaller friend's neck. While Keine didn't seem to have any trouble holding her up, it was clear that the whole thing was getting pretty awkward.

"Sorry!" Rumia hastily dropped to her feet. She brushed herself off, paused, and straightened Keine's collar. "I was just, you know, startled."

Haruko brow twisted up. "Just how strong are you, exactly?" she demanded.

Keine shot her a look. "Stronger than you," she said. Then she went over to investigate the fusion of bone and wood.

"Don't touch it!" Kohta snapped, but it was too late. Keine had already reached up to brush her fingers across both the tree's trunk and the side of the skull. She withdrew her hand and rubbed her fingers together.

"Huh," she said.

"What is it?" Rumia asked.

"It's…they're made of stone."

Haruko frowned. "So…wait. They're, like, a statue?"

"I don't think so," Keine said. "I think they're petrified."

"They what?"

"Uh, you know how when really old bones get buried for a long time, and they fossilize and turn to stone? The same thing happens to wood. It's called petrification."

"Wait, that can happen? How do you know that?"

Keine looked at Haruko like she was completely dense. "Don't you ever pay attention in class?"

"No?"

Shaking her head, Keine returned her attention to the petrified tree. "Well, I don't know what happened here. Just that _something_ fused this poor guy to this tree, and now they're both kind of like a rock."

"Wait a second," Kohta said. "Look! Here's another one!"

Next to him was another dead and blackened tree, and imprinted in it was the skeleton of a deer and several birds, ones that were just as malformed as the human bones that had scared Rumia.

Rumia felt her gut turn sour. She slowly looked around them.

All around them were black, gnarled trees, with twisting leafless branches and bark the color of midnight. And in those trunks were fused the bones of the dead, all of them malformed. They were standing in a grove of death.

"Um, guys?" Hayate said. "Where are we?"

Rumia didn't have the slightest idea. None of the stories she had heard of the Old Pine Wood had ever so much as mentioned a place like this.

"Hey, I think I see something," Keine said, peering off past the macabre grove.

"Where?" Rumia said.

"There! In the clearing!"

She was right. There was a break in the trees, and past it was an area completely clear of the forest entirely. It wasn't like the clearings they had already seen though. Those at least had things like grass and fungus and other foliage. This was a large circle that looked like it had been completely scoured of any sign of life, leaving nothing but what looked like fine, black sand.

That didn't mean it was empty though.

Surrounding the whole clearing was a ring of rocks, ones that were about waist-high to Rumia and had flattened tops. And sitting on the rocks were bones. Each one had three arm-bones laid out across each other in the shape of a six-pointed star, and in each of the star's center a human jawbone was laid.

"What in the hell?" Kohta said. "Who did this?"

"Well, I don't know and I don't care," Haruko said. "Clearly they don't want anyone messing with it, and you know what? I'm perfectly fine with that! So, let's get out of here right…huh."

"What?" Hayate said.

"I thought…I thought I heard…"

Haruko fell silent.

_**Rumia.** _

The voice seemed to drift on the wind, not even a whisper and yet Rumia was sure she had heard her name. It was like the Moon itself was calling to her, and she was hearing the call in the depths of her soul.

"Did you hear that?" Kohta said.

"Yeah, I did," Keine said. "I think it came from…"

_**Rumia.** _

Keine started walking. She went past the morbid markers standing guard over the clearing and right into the expanse of black earth. The others followed her.

Upon looking back, Rumia couldn't honestly say what made her set foot onto that clearing when all of her good sense had to have been screaming at her to stay away. It was more than simple curiosity. It had been like she was being pulled in, drawn by something small, quiet, but deadly insistent.

Whatever it was, it drew them deeper and deeper into the clearing. As they did, Rumia started to notice…changes. For one, everything felt like it was growing colder, from the bite of the night air to the ground beneath her feet. Even though her shoes and socks she could feel the chill of the earth.

For another, things were growing darker. Though the Moon and stars were still shining overhead, it felt like a cloud had passed in front of them, even though the sky was completely clear. The light was now becoming weak and strained.

And finally, Rumia was starting to hear things.

At first she thought it was just the rustling of the wind in the leaves, but there were no leaves around to be rustled. And the further she got toward the clearing's center, the louder it got. Voices, dozens of them, all of them speaking in quick and furious whispers. She couldn't understand anything they were saying, she wasn't even sure if they were speaking the same language as her.

The gibbering increased the further she went, and again she heard her name drift through the night.

_**Rumia.** _

The children reached the center of the black circle and stopped. As they did, so did the voices. The night was silent.

They all looked at each other and frowned. Haruko scratched her head. Hayate sneezed.

"Um," Keine said. "Why exactly did we come out here?"

No one had an answer for her.

"Okay. Then maybe we should…uh…"

The ground had started to move. As everyone stared, a depression began to form between them. It started off small, just a small dip in the ground.

But it grew.

And it grew.

Soon it was clear that the space beneath them was hollow and the sand was pouring in.

"Run!" Kohta shouted.

Run. Okay, that sounded like a fantastic idea. The only problem was that the clearing was swiftly turning into a sinkhole and doing so faster than they could even turn. Rumia tried to bolt, but by then the depression had reached her ankles.

Of them all, only Keine managed to actually start the process of fleeing before she was caught. The ground turned vertical, all of it flowing toward the growing hole in the center. Rumia tried to climb but slipped. She tried to swim, but that was nothing more than an act of desperation.

_Fly,_ she begged herself. _Take to the air! Go up, go up go…_

The tilt increased, and she was sliding. The hole rushed up to meet them, and then they were all swallowed up.

…

When Mokou had suddenly bolted off into the dark, Joshua wasn't sure if he would be able to catch up with her. She was just so much more athletic than he, and with much longer legs. He huffed and puffed along the best he could, finally got impatient, and took flight.

Flying through a forest such as the Old Pine Wood was not recommended, especially at night. Go too fast and you risked breaking your neck on an unseen tree trunk or low-hanging branch. Too high, and your hair would get snagged in the tightly woven canopy. Plus, you never knew what was skittering around in those upper branches. But Joshua didn't have time to worry about safety. He went as fast as he dared, but had to come to a sudden stop on more than one occasion to keep from running facefirst into a surprise tree.

"This is…this is insane…" he whispered under his breath. "Oh Lord Jesus, please be with us. Right now. That would be-"

Then he heard a piercing, feminine scream of agony.

Joshua froze in midair. He swallowed and shot off, a little faster this time.

Another scream followed, followed by the distinct sound of snapping limbs. There was a third scream, this one accompanied by sharp hissing sound, like a flame consuming a lit fuse.

There were lights up ahead, ones that cast thrashing shadows on the nearby trees. Though Joshua knew not what he could do to save Mokou when he reached her, he kept on anyway, praying that he was not too late, praying that there was still enough left of her to save.

What he actually saw when he got there was quite different from what he had been expecting, but still horrifying.

There were three twitching humanoid lumps on the ground. They seemed to be female and had on dresses, though their necks and limbs were far too long, as were their faces. It took Joshua a moment, but he then recognized three of the four spider youkai that had attacked the Children's Home.

However, they had been in considerably better shape then.

One was a smoking, blackened wreck, her roasted skin flaking away while rivulets of fire still ran over her in places. She was still alive though, twitching and moaning in agony as any wounded spider would.

Another hadn't been set on fire, but it looked like her back had been broken, her neck snapped, and all four limbs dislocated at the joints and not set back in place. She lay in a heap, croaking out piteous moans through her mangled throat.

The third's skin had turned beet red and was cracked all over, with glowing orange light pulsing through the cracks that flared up with every tortured breath. She was lying flat on her back, arms and limbs splayed out around her as she continuously tried and failed to scream.

And standing with her back to the trio with her hand grasping the throat of the fourth spider youkai as she pressed his back against a tree was the Aoki Yume Children's Home's cook.

Despite all of Joshua's fears, Mokou looked completely unharmed, thank God. But Joshua wasn't sure he liked seeing her like this. The spider youkai in her grasp was frankly _terrified,_ and was garbling nonsense at Mokou. No doubt he would have been screaming had Mokou not cut off his air. Mokou was holding him up with her left hand, and in her right…

It was on fire. Her hand was enveloped by a ball of flame, and yet she wasn't burning. She clearly didn't even feel the heat. What was more, he was pretty sure that she was glowing. There seemed to be a thin red aura covering her.

Joshua swallowed. Mokou was a strong woman, one that he knew had a dark past. But this…but _this…_

"Mokou," he said, his voice cracking.

Mokou sighed. "Joshua," she said without turning toward him.

"What are…" Joshua glanced at the mangled wretches on the ground. "What did you do?"

"Well, for the blackened one I set all the fat in her body on fire," Mokou said, her voice terrifying calm. "That was an old favorite of mine, always got a good scream. The croaking one is pretty self-explanatory, just twisted this and popped that, leaving her kind of broken. The glowing one had all the blood in her veins boiled. And as for this guy…" The hand clutching at the spider youkai's throat tightened. "He's going to have all three done to him if he doesn't tell me where the children are, and not necessarily in that order. I already gave him a small taste."

It was then that Joshua noticed that the male youkai's hands and feet were twitching and scorched ruins, no doubt to prevent him from clawing at her. Joshua clutched at his head. "You…you tortured them!"

"I did."

"You didn't have to do that!"

Mokou breathed in slowly through her nose and then released it out of her mouth in a long sigh. "Josh, buddy. You're a sweet guy, and I know you can be tough when you need to be. I like you a lot. So I'm giving you this warning right now: don't go into that clearing over there. Just take my word for it."

Joshua paused. He then looked over to the clearing in question, which was a ring of tree surrounding what looked like the remains of a scavenged home. He saw the burnt wrecks of several pieces of furniture, including a table.

"Trust me on this," Mokou said.

"What happened?" he said hoarsely.

"What do you _think_ happened?" Mokou growled, her tone suddenly shot through with venom. Her fingertips started to glow red where they dug into the youkai's neck, and his strangled gibberish took on a whole new note of urgency. "Why do you think this scum took our kids?"

Joshua fell silent. Then he turned toward the clearing.

"I'm warning you, what you see you won't be able to unsee."

Joshua knew that Mokou meant well; he knew that she was just protecting him. However, she was not the only one who had seen and done things that he wished he could take back. And there was plenty that he already wished he could unsee.

Taking a deep breath of the ash-tinged air, Joshua started walking toward the clearing.

"Your choice," Mokou said.

Stepping between two trees with blackened trunks, Joshua entered the clearing. Sure enough, it was filled with trash and pieces of furniture, most of it burned.

And in its center was a dinner table of all things.

And on that table…

Joshua took a good, long look. Then he slowly bowed his head and closed his eyes. His hand gripped the crucifix around his neck.

Things hadn't changed at all when he stepped out from the clearing. The three females were still mewling in pain while Mokou held the fourth member of their party aloft. "Told you," she said.

Joshua nodded. "Who was that?" he said hoarsely.

"Eiko," Mokou said. "I could tell because of that birthmark on her hand."

"I…see," Joshua said. "And the others?"

"Well, as it so happens, _this_ guys was about to tell me all about that when you showed up," Mokou said. She tilted her head and gave her captive a small shake. "So, how about it, tough guy? I ease up on your throat, and you can tell me all about this Black Circle. And maybe I won't slow cook you on a spit. Sound good to you?"

The male youkai stopped groaning long enough to shoot her a sallow glower, his yellow, multi-pupiled eyes conveying pure hate.

Then he spat a white gob right in her face.

Joshua started, but Mokou hadn't so much as twitched. The gob turned out to be webbing, and it had completely encased her face like a mummy's mask. However, smoke started rise from her face, and the web's gooey strands began to crinkle and collapse inward. Then it began to turn black.

And then it began to turn red.

"Now that," Mokou tsked as the burning web fell away from her face in embers, "was big mistake."

Then she spun around and hurled the spider at a nearby tree so hard that it cracked and bent sideways. He struck with a pained gasp and fell to the ground.

Mokou began to advance on him, both of her hands now encased in flame. Realizing her intentions, Joshua ran over and put himself between her and the spider. "Wait!" he cried, sticking up his hands.

"Get out of my way, Josh," Mokou said, her glowing red eyes fixated on the spider.

"This isn't right!" Joshua pleaded. "You must know that this isn't right!"

Then Mokou finally looked at him. "Isn't…this isn't…"

Suddenly she extinguished the flames in her hands and seized Joshua by the lapels. She swung him around, holding him up with both hands as easily as if he weighed as little as the children they looked after.

"Right?" she snarled. "You wanna talk to me about what's _right?_ Those monsters came to our home and _took our children!_ They _slaughtered_ Eiko and probably ate her alive! A thirteen year old girl, and they ate her alive!"

"Yes, but _torturing…"_ Joshua's voice trailed off. Over Mokou's shoulder he could see the male spider starting to rise. He was hacking and wheezing in pain, but one of his mangled hands was fumbling toward his jacket pocket.

"They deserve no less," Mokou said. "This is _not_ the time for mercy, so I would appreciate it if you would go off to the side, say a nice little prayer…"

The spider youkai pulled his hand out of his pocket. Though his fingers were still burnt, they hand managed to clutch around something small and glinting.

"Mokou," Joshua said.

But Mokou wasn't listening. "…and stay the _fuck_ of my-"

Joshua seized Mokou with his own hands and tried to yank her out of the way. "Mokou, look out!"

It was too late. The spider youkai hurled the tiny knife. Despite the damage to his hands his aim was supernaturally true. The blade hit Mokou at the back of her head and buried itself in up to the hilt.

Mokou dropped like a sack of potatoes.

Joshua fell as well, his eyes wide and mouth agape. Mokou was lying lifeless, the knife still sticking out of the back of her head, the roots of her pale violet hair turning red.

The spider youkai threw his head back and let out a piercing shriek. Then he charged at Joshua on all fours, his gait clumsy from his burns but still horribly fast.

Joshua scampered back away from him. "Wait!" he said. "Stop!"

The spider opened his mouth wide. Inside was a horror of rows upon rows of quivering teeth surrounding a long and pale tongue. He threw himself at Joshua, blackened fingers extended and black spittle running down his pointed chin.

Though he knew that it wouldn't save him, Joshua threw his arms in front of his face and closed his eyes, bracing himself for the end.

It didn't come. Instead, there was just a low thump.

Though he didn't want to at all, Joshua cracked his eyes open. The spider had fallen to the ground, his outstretched arms falling just a few centimeters short of Joshua's body, his face contorted in surprise and bewilderment.

And wrapped around one of his ankles was Mokou's hand.

"Ugh," the dead woman groaned as she pushed herself up on her elbows. She groped around with her free hand until she found the handle of the knife. A quick yank and it was out, its blade still crimson with her blood and brains.

Shaking her head as if she had merely taken a light slap to the face, Mokou rose up. She blinked a couple of times and shook her head again.

Then she looked down at the shocked creature still in her grasp and her eyes narrowed.

"Now that," she said, "was also a mistake."

Then her hand twisted in a peculiar way, and suddenly the spider had two shins where he previously only had one.

"Mokou?" Joshua whispered.

"Joshua," Mokou said as she began to drag the screaming spider off. "Go back into the clearing. I saw some unburnt bags in there. Empty one out and put what's left of Eiko inside. Then wait for me."

Joshua blinked. "What?"

"I know it's not ideal, but we're short of options, and I don't want anything spoiling her further."

"But-"

"I have work to do, and you're getting in the way. So get to work."

"Did…you were dead. How did you-"

Mokou's face snapped toward him, her eyes a blazing fury. "I said _move!"_

Joshua's head jerked back in surprise. He opened his mouth to respond, but then closed it without saying anything.

Then he got up to do as he was told.

…

The fall had been dark, terrifying, but at least mercifully swift. The landing hadn't been _that_ bad, as there was at least a pile of soft sand to land in.

Unfortunately, the sand also turned out to be ice-cold, and it got _everywhere!_ It was worse than having snow go down one's back, because that at least would melt away.

"Ah! Cold, cold, cold!"

Rumia tried to flee from the pile only to get her feet tangled up, causing her to fall.

"You okay?" Kohta said as he looked down at her in concern. Of course he had managed to get out of the sand and onto his feet.

"No," Rumia said crankily. "I am very much _not_ okay. But I'm not dead yet, so that counts for something."

Kohta extended his hand, and Rumia took it. With a slight grunt he pulled her too her feet.

"What is this stuff?" Rumia complained as she shook the freezing sand from her hair, arms, and outfit. "Why is it so cold?"

"Because it's evil," Hayate said in a hollow voice. "Don't you feel it? It's evil. This is a place where evil dwells. It'll eat us up, just like they ate Eiko!"

Normally Rumia might have been tempted to mock her for her fear and superstition, but all things considered she was having a hard time coming up with an argument.

"Speaking of which, what is this place anyway?" Keine wondered.

"I don't know," Kohta said. "Maybe it's some kind of…oh, wait. Hang on."

Everyone froze. "What?" Haruko whispered. "What is it?"

Kohta reached into the pile of cold sand and pulled out the anti-youkai pack he had stolen, and from there he drew out a box of matches.

The cold had made his fingers clumsy, so it took a few strikes to finally light a match. But at last a tiny flame sputtered to life, and he held up the match to give them a better look.

Rumia quite frankly preferred the darkness.

They were in a huge circular space, one even larger than the orphanage. It was empty save for themselves and the tall pile of black sand in the middle, which was still bathed in the circle of moonlight that came from the hole in the center of the roof.

But the walls were an unending tribute to Death.

It was the same as the stone trees. Skeletons of once-living things were embedded into the walls in twisted positions, many of which would not have been possible when they had meat and skin. Most looked like they had been partially melted as well and splattered right against the wall. Only instead of a few, there were _hundreds_ of them: people, deer, cows, birds, fish, snakes, squirrels, horses, lizards, bats, and several things that she could only guess at.

If there was one thing they all had in common other than being dead and stuck in a wall, it was that they looked like they had been trying to flee from… _something,_ something in the center of the room, something that had pulverized them all with a single blast of power.

"What the hell," Haruko said flatly.

"We…we got to get out of here," Hayate said. "This is a bad place. We shouldn't be here. We shouldn't be here. We need to escape."

"I'm…open to suggestions," Kohta said.

Rumia opened her mouth to respond, but then low, raspy moan echoed through the chamber, like a mummified corpse awakened from the dead and filling its dusty lungs for the first time in an era. The match in Kohta's hand slipped from his fingers, and the light went out.

"What was that?" Hayate whispered in the dark.

Then the moan sounded again, and louder this time. Kohta hastily felt around for another match and lit it, and he held it up so that they could see.

They needn't have worried.

It was Kana, who was finally starting to stir. She had been lying on the ground next to Kohta, but now she was awake and struggling to rise.

"Oh, hey!" Kohta said as he knelt down next to her. "Are you okay?"

"Uhhhh…" Kana groaned. "Feel…airy…"

"So…pretty much the same as always?" Rumia said. Keine shot her a sharp look, which made her feel a little ashamed. "Sorry."

Kohta helped Kana sit up. She coughed weakly. "Wha…where are we?"

"Underground," Kohta said. "I think."

"Ugh." Kana blinked blearily at her surroundings. "Huh. I…I thought I was flying up. But now I'm down. How'd I get down?"

"You got captured by spider youkai," Kohta helpfully supplied. "And you got stung with their venom. That's why you feel so weird."

"Oh. Isn't that…nice…" She smiled up at him and giggled. "You got sandy hair."

Kohta involuntarily touched his spiky hair.

Then Rumia got an idea. "Hey, Kana?"

"Oh, is Rumia here too? That's also nice. Hi!"

"Uh, hello. Listen, do you remember when you were flying earlier?"

"Uh-huh. It was fun. Until it wasn't."

"Right. Do you think you could do it again?"

"Uh…dunno." Kana's head slumped forward, digging her chin into her chest. "I'm tired."

"No, no, stay awake!" Rumia leaned over to slap Kana lightly in the cheeks. "Kana, I need you to try to pay attention. We're stuck in a hole in the ground-"

"Oh, that sounds fun."

"No, it's not! We're trapped, so we need you to fly out and go find help!"

"Can't she lift us out?" Haruko asked.

"What, are you crazy?" Rumia snapped at her. "Look at her! It'll be a miracle if she can get herself out!"

Suddenly the ground started rumbling. Hayate yelped and hid herself behind Haruko, who looked like she wished she had someone to hide behind. Keine threw herself to the ground and covered her head. Rumia and Kohta quickly retreated from the center of the room, dragging the still-loopy Kana with them.

The pile of sand that lay directly beneath the hole had started to rise. It lifted upward like an hourglass in reverse, pouring up into the hole.

"What the hell?" Haruko shouted. "How is it doing that? That's impossible!"

Despite the frightening situation they had found themselves in, the sheer stupidity of that statement meant that Rumia and Keine both had to stare at her in disbelief.

"What?"

The sand finally all lifted out of the room, plugging up the hole completely and choking out the moonlight. The only light was that of Kohta's match, which was running low.

A few seconds later, the tiny flame sputtered and died.

For a brief, dark moment, nothing happened.

Then every single dead creature that had fused with the wall opened its eyes.

Everyone screamed as hundreds of brightly glowing red lights appeared in the empty eye sockets all across the walls, flooding the room with a sickly crimson glow. Hayate broke off from Haruko and ran toward the center of the room.

"Let me out!" she sobbed. "Let me out! I don't want to stay here, I don't want to-"

Then the ground started shaking again.

Something was rising up from beneath, filling the space left behind by the pile of black sand. In the scarlet glow, it was hard to make out, but it appeared to be a multi-sided cylinder about the size of a fully-grown man. It was also completely black, so that any features were nearly impossible to make out.

Hayate screamed and ran back, only to be reminded of the dead things staring at her with red eyes all along the walls. She tried going back the other way, but the cylinder was there, so she just fell to her knees and clutched at her head as she cried. "Please, make it stop, make it stop!"

Under normal circumstances, Rumia might have been tempted to mock her for her cowardice. But in all honestly, if Hayate wasn't doing that, then Rumia probably would be.

"Oh, it's a box," Kana said calmly, as if she were remarking on a particularly interesting cloud. "I wonder what's inside."

"A _box?"_ Kohta said. "That thing is…"

His voice trailed off. Even Hayate's crying had quieted.

Rumia didn't need to ask why. She heard it too.

_**Rumia.** _

The voices were back, the gibbering ones that she couldn't understand and the one that was clearly calling her name. Only now they weren't whispering out of the thin air. Now they had a definite source.

It was the box. The box was speaking to her. The box was _calling_ to her.

Rumia started walking toward the box. Without a word the others did so as well. Kohta, Keine, and Haruko all slowly made their way across the room. Hayate stopped sniveling and stood up to follow. Even Kana had managed to totter to her feet and limp her way over.

_**Rumia.** _

Each of the six children came to a stop around the box and turned toward one of its many sides. Rumia stared entranced by the smooth, black edge, so flawless and beautiful. It was like it had been carved out of solid night, a perfect piece of darkness.

_**Rumia.** _

The gibbering grew louder. Rumia raised up her right hand. Unprompted, the others did the same. As one they all laid their hands against the sides of the box.

Its surface was colder than steel that had been left out all night in the snow. Rumia's skin instantly froze to it.

Interesting.

Then something sharp bit into her palm. She could feel the hot blood leaking out, warming her palm.

_**Rumia.** _

Rumia wrenched her hand away, ripping off an entire layer of skin in the process. It was left on the side of the box, a white handprint set against the black, with a tiny bead of ruby blood hovering in its center.

As Rumia watched in fascination, the bead started to shake. Then it began to grow, sending rivulets of red across the handprint, dying the white skin bright scarlet.

Soon the box had six crimson hands on six of its sides, one for each child.

And then it began to open.


	10. The Phoenix's Daughter

_Down._

_Deep down, down, down._

_Down into the dark. Down into the cold. Down into the place devoid of light, devoid of kindness, devoid of hope._

_Down into the place of pain. Down into the place of despair. Down into the place from which there is no escape, the place set aside for those of the blackest of souls, of the darkest of hearts._

_Down into the prison set in the furthest reaches of existence, down into the place intended to swallow the progenitors of evil and suffering, down into the place of Judgment._

_Down into the dark._

_Down into the cold._

_Down into chains._

_And then…a face. A pale, beautiful face, framed by long hair so black that it melts into the darkness that frames it. It is not the face of a man or a women, but of an ethereal creature whose beauty defies gender, defies mortality, defies humanity._

_But it is a cruel beauty, to be feared rather than desired. It is beautiful like a wildfire is beautiful, like a hurricane is beautiful, like a black hole is beautiful, and so much more destructive, so much more malicious._

_Its eyes are closed, though not in sleep, but in waiting._

_Its eyes are closed, but its mouth is moving, curling up into a poisonous smile._

Rumia's eyes snapped open.

The view she was greeted with was at once familiar, yet alien. The wooden slats of a slightly slanted wooden roof were above her. She knew those slats, every single line and nick and knot. She saw them when she went to bed and they were the first thing that greeted her when she woke up.

And yet she couldn't stop staring at them. No, that wasn't right. They shouldn't be there; _she_ shouldn't be there! She ought to be seeing…

_Darkness._

Rumia's right eye twitched.

_Cold._

No, she was home! She was in the Aoki Yume's Children's Home, the only home she had ever known! This was normal!

_Chains._

Then why did it look so unfamiliar? Why did she feel so out of place?

"Rumia?"

Rumia turned her head toward the voice. She was greeted by a nut-brown, heart-shaped face, one with large, dark eyes and shiny black hair that hung over one shoulder in a tightly knotted ponytail.

Once again she was struck by a wave of recognition and confusion. _Who is this person?_ whispered one part of her mind.

_What do you mean?_ answered another. _It's Melissa Garcia! You see her every day!_

" _Estas despierto!"_ Melissa said excitedly, which was something neither part of Rumia understood. _"Oh, gracias a Jesús!"_ Then she cleared her throat and said slowly, "Are you all right?"

Rumia didn't answer. She just stared.

"Rumia?" Melissa waved her hand in front of Rumia's face. Her dark eyes frowned in concern. "Can you…Can you hear me?"

Rumia opened her mouth to respond. "Who are…" Then she stopped. No, wait, that wasn't right. "Melissa," she said. "What happened?"

Before Melissa could answer, someone groaned in discomfort and confusion.

As Melissa ran over to see to the person in question, Rumia struggled to put her thoughts in order. What the hell had happened? They had been…okay, there was the fight at the market, that much she remembered pretty well. And after that had been flying lessons. And then-

_The spider's long, gaunt face stretched as it opened its mouth wide. Inside was a black pit, filled with row after row of quivering teeth._

Rumia shivered. Right. The spiders. The kidnapping. The forest-

_The slender creature turned its faceless visage toward her. It reached out with one stick-thin limb, as long as Miss Mokou was tall._

Rumia covered her face. No, please. Make it stop.

_Eiko lay upon the table, her torso split wide open. The spiders were feasting upon her innards, ripping away chunks of meat and offal with their teeth. Her face was still visible, the pale flesh now splattered with her own blood, the eyes plucked right from the sockets and yet still managing to convey the terror and pain she had been feeling in her final moments._

No, no, no, _no!_

_The spider had them, had ensnared their legs. It was dragging them back, pulling them to their deaths._

And then…and then…

What _had_ happened then?

She had vague memories of something explicably twisted, something to do with…skeletons? Skeletons and sand? It had been horrible, that much she was certain of, but try as she might, she couldn't recall more than a few fleeting images.

Rumia struggled to sit up. She was in the sick room, where kids who fell ill or were injured were kept to recover, as well as to prevent diseases from spreading. It was a small room surrounded by cabinets, with several sleeping mats spread on the ground. She was lying on one of the sleeping mats, with others around her. She saw Haruko and Hayate, still unmoving and unresponsive. Kana was there too, looking even more unwell than usual. Keine seemed to be sleeping unsoundly, if the way her closed eyes and jaw was tightening up and her face shone with sweat.

Kohta, however, had also woken up. He had been the one groaning, and was now sitting up as well, with Melissa kneeling next to him.

"Ugh," he said as he rubbed his forehead. "What…where…"

"Sick room," Melissa told him. "Um, are you all right?"

Kohta squinted at her. "Who…what…?"

Melissa swallowed. "It is me. Melissa Garcia. Do you not know me?"

"Melissa?" Kohta blinked his eyes several times and shook his head. "Oh, right. Melissa. Hi."

"Hello. Are you…" Melissa reached over to touch his shoulder.

Kohta violently recoiled. "Don't touch me!"

Melissa quickly withdrew her hand. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to…"

"Don't," Kohta repeated. "Just don't touch me. Don't."

"Um…" Melissa's eyes flicked from Kohta to Rumia to find them both glaring at her. "Er, okay?" She nervously licked her lips. "Are you…okay?"

Neither Rumia nor Kohta said anything.

"Right." Melissa stood up. "I will go get Miss Satoko then."

She hurried from the room, leaving the two of them sitting together in silence.

…

Joshua sat on the edge of his bed, bowed head in his hands. His lips moved silently but fervently, in time with the prayer he had been repeating in his head and heart over and over ever since that night in the Youkai Forest.

_Lord, grant me strength. Please. I don't know what to do. I need your guidance now. Jesus, please._

It had been three days since the children had been taken by the spiders. Three days since he had plunged into the forest alone in hopes of finding them. Three days since he had seen the cruelty suffered by poor Eiko on her last day. Three days since he had been thoroughly reminded of the stark evil that prowled his new home's darkest corners.

Three days since he had seen his friend Fujiwara no Mokou for what she really was.

Joshua had seen and even done his share of things that he would like to forget, and that night was filled with more than its fair share. But nothing would ever compare to those few minutes, when he had sat by himself in the middle of the scorched remains of the spider's lair, Eiko's butchered body sitting in a filthy sack next to him, hands covering his ears as he tried not to hear what Mokou was doing to those spiders.

_Please! Mercy, I beseech yah!_

But no matter how hard he pressed his palms to his ears, no matter how loudly he prayed, he could never shut out their screams, nor the cold, pitiless sound of Mokou's voice.

_Mercy? You have the gall to beg me for mercy? Did you show mercy to that girl? Tell me: when she screamed, did you laugh? When she cried, did it make you feel powerful? When she stopped moving, were you disappointed that your fun was over?_

_No! I'm sorry, we wun't do it again, I-AAAAAHHHHHHH!_

And then the smell of burning flesh, already hanging thick along with the stench of ash and rot, had suddenly grown.

_I can go as slow or as fast as you like. I can break, I can pop, and I can burn. Slow cook or searing flame, whatever I choose. And if you don't want me to start getting creative, you're going to tell me everything I want to know. You do that, and I'll simply turn you all into to ashes so you can resurrect good as new later. One quick flash-fire, and it'll all be over. Or I can draw this out. Your choice._

_Yes! Yes! Questions! Ask yah questions, I'll tell yah everything!_

Tears had dripped down Joshua's face then, just as they were in the present. Crouching by himself in the forest or sitting safe and sound on his bed, it made no difference. The sounds of agony and the reek of death were just as fresh.

_Good. Now, word has reached me that this whole endeavor wasn't even your idea. Not at first, at least. You were put up to this, by a Human from the Human Village, weren't you?_

At this, Joshua had stopped shaking and praying. And though he knew that he probably ought not to, he had removed his hands from his ears and listened.

_Yes! Yes! Summin from dere! Came tah us, 'e did. Sayin' 'e would pay us tah go aftah dah orphans! Said 'e would t-t-take out dey deffinses, dey charms an' shit!_

Take out their defenses? Someone had really gone out of their way to stir up evil youkai against the children and had promised to leave them helpless? And it had been another _Human?_

_Who? Who was it? What did they look like?_

_I dunno! Never saw 'em face!_

_Oh, that is not the answer you should have given me._

_No! I swear, I dun't-AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!_

The sounds of the spider's had screams mixed with a burning hiss.

_I swear, I swear, please no more. Never saw 'is face. Wore a big ol' cloak, 'e did. Short fella, kinda chunky. Stank o' fear. Squeaky voice._

Joshua stood up and made for the door.

_Hmmm, well, that's not exactly a whole lot to go on. Gotta do better than that._

_Dat's all I know! Dat's all!_

He made his way through the hall and down the stairs.

_You know, I think your burnt bits are distracting you. Making it hard to remember. You think if I take those hands off it'll jog your memory?_

_No! I swear, dat's all I 'ave!_

To the front door and out onto the porch.

_Well, if you say so. I guess we're done here._

_Yes! Yes, please! End it!_

_As you wish. Hey, you know how there's actually a couple kinds of fire that you can't recover from? That'll burn your body so completely that those meager magics holding it together won't be able to stitch you up?_

Down the steps, onto the front path, and into the grassy lawn.

_You ain't no Dragon! YOU AIN'T NO DRAGON!_

_No, I'm not. Dragonfire is unfortunately in short supply around here. But I got the next best thing._

_The…The Phoenix's Daughter! Yer dah Phoenix's Daughter! NO, PLEASE! PLE-AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!_

The now-dead spider's final screams still echoing in his ears, Joshua found Mokou out in the field. She was walking all along the perimeter fence and slapping paper charms to the posts.

Upon their return, one of the first things Mokou had done was go out and inspect all of the magical wards they had set up around the estate. It had been just as they feared. All the charms had been sabotaged, rendered powerless. Which meant that even if Kana hadn't accidentally blown herself and the others past the fence, the spiders would have been able to get in anyway. The implications of that were horrifying to think about.

Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Joshua approached her.

"Um, Mokou?" he said.

"Josh. Good," Mokou said, giving him only the quickest of glances. "Come and give me a hand here."

Honestly, at this point Joshua really didn't want to see what was undoubtedly more bad news, but he went over to her anyway. "Look, I know we haven't really talked much since, you know, the forest, but-"

"Then talk while you're helping me," Mokou said, shoving a handful of charms into his hand. "You know what this means, don't you?"

"Huh?"

"What our charms being sabotaged means. What that spider told us means." Though Mokou didn't raise her voice, the anger seeping through was palpable. "This wasn't just some dumbass youkai looking to score a meal growing too bold. This was a set-up. A hit. Eiko was basically _assassinated!"_

"Assassinated?" Joshua tried to wrap his head around the concept. "But by whom? Who would do something like this?"

At this, Mokou said nothing. She just shot him a meaningful look.

After a beat Joshua said, "You don't know that for sure."

"He's still the number one suspect," Mokou said.

"Maybe. But that doesn't mean-"

"I've been gone digging up whatever info I could find," Mokou said as she walked from post to post, sticking pieces of paper onto each one. "And I've learned a few things. Nothing conclusive, but enough to point fingers in Skinner's direction. And you have to admit, it tracks."

"And if it is him?"

"Well, then my job just got a whole lot simpler."

Joshua felt the blood leaving his face. "Job?"

"Yeah. Protect the house. Protect the kids. If the reason we're getting attacked by youkai is also the reason that all the Humans are turning against us, then that means there's fewer people I gotta go after."

"Go after," Joshua repeated. "You mean, like you went after those spiders?"

"That's exactly what I mean," Mokou said without shame. Her hand squeezed into a fist, crumbling the burnt charms to dust. "Joshua, I know why you came out here to talk to me. I know you saw a side of me you didn't like. I get that. But understand this: you cannot make me regret what I did to those spiders. It's not going to happen."

Just the small reminder of what had happened to those spiders send a shiver up Joshua's spine. "Yes, but-"

"No," Mokou said. "No 'but.' No arguments. I don't subscribe to your religion, and I don't care about your god. I'm sorry you had to be there for that sorry business, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat. After what they did to Eiko, they deserved no less. Hell, I'd bet anything that that wasn't the first kid they did it too either. Or Human. So save your speeches about forgiveness and mercy. I don't care. And if I have to do the same to Skinner and every single one of his followers to prevent another one of our kids from ending up like Eiko, then so be it. They already tell stories about me. What's one more?"

"Mokou, no," Joshua whispered.

Annoyance flashed through Mokou's maroon eyes. "Joshua," she said, warning in her voice.

"No," he said hastily. "I mean, you can't just go kill everyone connected to him. That'll just prove his point and set the rest against us. Besides, even if he is to blame, odds are he's hiding this from his followers. They're all worked up about youkai, so do you really think he'd tell them that he's been cutting deals with them?"

"Don't care," Mokou said. "They come at us again, then that's on their heads." Then she frowned. "Though I guess you have a point. Don't want to go making any martyrs. That never turns out well."

Joshua wondered how much personal experience she had with that. "Just please wait until we learn more," he said. "As for the spiders, well, I know I'm not going to change your mind about that."

"Good."

"But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about," he said.

Mokou quirked a silver eyebrow. She leaned up against the fence and waited.

Joshua had been trying to work out how to word his question over and over and had yet to come up with a satisfactory way, so he decided to just say it. "Mokou, who are you?" he said. "Or rather, _what_ are you?"

…

Satoko sat alone in the basement of her family's orphanage, just her and Eiko Goto's body.

When Mokou and Joshua had emerged together from the forest with their missing children draped lifelessly over Mokou's shoulders, Satoko had feared the worst. They had been too late, the children were all dead or dying, and had only been returned to them as corpses.

To her utmost relief, Mokou had assured her that the kids weren't dead, only unconscious, and they would be waking up in time. Satoko had felt like massive stones were being rolled off her shoulders. They were all right. Despite all the odds against them, their family was still whole, they had survived yet another outside attack.

And then she had noticed that Mokou only had six kids with her when there should have been seven. When Satoko had asked about Eiko, Mokou only looked over to Joshua, who was carrying a filthy burlap sack over one shoulder. And when Satoko had inquired about what was in the sack, Joshua had said nothing; he didn't need to. The look in his eyes had told her all that she needed to know.

This of course was not the first time that one of the orphans of Aoki Yume's Children's Home had died before coming of age. It wasn't even the first to occur in Satoko's lifetime. Hell, it wasn't even the first to be murdered by a youkai. Gensokyo was full of dangers, all of which were especially deadly to children. At the end of a path that led from the back door, sitting nestled in a small grove of pine trees, was their private cemetery. Satoko's ancestors were all buried there, as were any of the other helpers that had passed away while working at the orphanage. But most of those buried there had headstones bearing two dates that had gaps between them that were altogether too short.

Satoko had had to bury too many during her life. She had buried her parents, her elder sister, and her uncle. She had buried Mr. Matsuda, Miss Kyouko, Miss Lillian, and Mrs. Oa. But while all of their deaths had been sad and painful, they had at least all been due to the ravages of age.

Burying Shuna, Kenta, Eru, Tobi, and Kano had hurt so much more.

And now she was going to have to bury Eiko.

And the worst of it was that she shouldn't have to.

The fingers of Satoko's right hand slowly squeezed themselves into a fist and uncurled again, only to clench right back up. Mokou had found something. They hadn't much time to talk, but Mokou had said that there was more to this than a simple youkai attack, that someone had set this up, someone _Human._

The number of people who were set against the orphanage was far larger than it had any right to be, but this was beyond the pale. Wasn't it enough that they had turned their backs on parentless children, that they had driven them away and denied them support, that they now also actively stirred up dark spirits to _murder_ them? And the same dark spirits that the children themselves were accused of trafficking with no less! It was nothing short of monstrous!

At the very least she knew who was ultimately responsible. This had Nathaniel Skinner's gloved fingerprints all over it.

_I should just let Mokou kill him,_ Satoko thought bitterly. _Him, and everyone else listening to him._ What were they going to do about it, isolate her family even more than they already were? Keep trying to kill them? That bird had flown.

Then, as she sat in the dimly lit basement with nothing more than a dead child and her own bitter thoughts for company, Satoko heard something.

It was very faint, so faint that she wasn't sure that she wasn't imagining it. It was a little like a soft moan of fear, the whimper of a sleeping baby beset by nightmares.

Satoko listened intently. No, her mind wasn't playing tricks on her. She was hearing it all right. _Someone_ was softly crying to themselves, someone down there with her. It sounded like a little girl.

And it was coming from Eiko's shroud-covered corpse.

Satoko slowly breathed out. Well, it was happening again. This was to be expected, after all. She had had to prepare many of those who had passed away under her care for burial herself, and dead bodies were unfortunately not as silent as one might hope. Gas got trapped, their insides shifted, and they could sometimes be alarmingly noisy.

_Trapped in_ what? _She was mostly eaten! Her stomach, her intestines, and her lungs are all gone!_

The muffled weeping was getting a little louder. Satoko remained sitting where she was, staring at the still form on the table.

She had to be imagining things now, because she was quite certain that she just saw something move beneath the shroud.

Satoko slowly rose from her chair and walked over to the body. Her heart was pounding quite loudly now, and her hands had started to tremble.

_This is nothing,_ she told herself. _You're just weary and scared. You haven't slept well in days. Of course you wouldn't be all there. Just let it lie._

Instead, she reached down with one hand and gently pulled the shroud away from Eiko's face.

The whimpering stopped.

When Mokou and Joshua had shown her the remains of Eiko's body, her face had been completely gone. Her scalp and hair were still in place, but those monsters had ripped away her lips, cheeks, and nose, exposing the skull beneath, which had been smiling its red-stained grin back up at Satoko. Her eyes had been gone too, no doubt plucked out and swallowed like a pair of grapes.

Satoko had stared a long time at the ghastly visage. She had seen the ravaged remains of children under her care before, and would no doubt do so again before Death claimed her in her turn, but there was something truly disturbing about the carcass now lying before her, something that terrified her. This wasn't just some cruel turn of fate, this was deliberate cruelty against an innocent, set in motion by those who should have worked to protect her.

This was _evil._

However, all of that was gone now. Eiko's face was once again whole and unharmed. Her eyes were closed, as if in sleep.

Then Satoko gasped. Eiko's mouth was moving, the plump lips slowly moving up and down, like she was trying to speak.

Satoko stood frozen with fear, staring unblinking as Eiko's mouth opened ever so slightly and closed again, over and over, like she was trying to tell Satoko something, something important enough to return for from beyond the grave.

Her mouth finally fell open, and out wriggled a fat-bodied black spider. It crawled up Eiko's face, toward her eyes.

Then something knocked loudly on the basement door.

"Miss Satoko!" Melissa's voice called from the other side. _"Venga rápido!_ They are awake!"

Satoko couldn't help from crying out in shock as her whole body jolted. Panting, she held a hand to her thundering heart.

The spider was gone. As was Eiko's face. It was again a ravaged horror, the flesh ripped off, leaving her bloodstained with its rictus grin and hollow eye sockets.

Satoko hastily pulled the sheet back in place and hurried toward the door. Melissa was there, hand still raised to knock.

"Yes!" Satoko said, perhaps a bit too loudly. "Thank you!"

Melissa nodded. She was about to turn to go, but then her gaze shifting to a spot beyond Satoko. "Ah," she said. "Is that…"

Satoko quickly moved her away from the door and shut it tight. "Don't look, Melissa. Just leave her be."

"Okay," Melissa said hoarsely. "Um, Miss Satoko?"

"Yes?"

"Is it…" Melissa's brow furrowed, as it often did when she needed to search her mind for the right word. "Regular? No. Expected?"

"Normal?" Satoko suggested.

"Right! Is it normal that Rumia and Kohta would be…angry after waking up?"

"Angry?" Satoko was puzzled. "How do you mean?"

"They seemed…angry. And…a little mean?"

"At you?"

Melissa nodded.

Sighing, Satoko laid a hand on Melissa's shoulder. "Well, they've been through a lot. I imagine they're still scared and confused, so don't take it personally."

"They did not look confused," Melissa said after a pause. "They just look angry."

"I'm not surprised. But it's not you they're angry with." Satoko gave Melissa's shoulder a squeeze. "Go on, now. I'll go talk to them."

…

Joshua had been bracing himself for Mokou's response the whole time. Would be angry? Take offense? If he pressed too hard, might she even turn violent? He didn't think so, but then again, he had been learning a lot about her that he could never have previously guessed at.

But instead, she laughed. "Oh wow, you just up and said it," she said. "Honestly, I thought someone would've tried prying that out of me my first week." Then she thought for a moment, and then amended, "Though I guess a few of the kids got real persistent with their questions, but they're easy to wave off."

"I'm serious though," Joshua pressed. "Mokou, you were _dead._ I saw that knife bury itself in the back of your head! It went right into your brain."

"It did," Mokou said with a nod.

"That should have killed you!"

"It did," Mokou said again.

"So…why are you alive? How did you get up? Are you a youkai?"

Mokou laughed again. "Well, that's actually kind of a complicated question."

That was not the answer Joshua had been hoping for. _"How?_ It's a yes or a no question!"

"Not really," Mokou shrugged. "See, the thing you gotta understand is that 'youkai' is actually kind of a fluid term. We use it as a catch-all for any magical creature that came out of something that wasn't, well, magic before, but it kind of encapsulates a whole lot of variety."

Joshua stuck his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels. "I'm listening."

"Well, see, you got your elemental youkai, you got the ones that come from animals, you got the ones that seem to pop out of whatever odd garbage people left lying around, you got those weirdly specific creeps, you got the ones that I guess come from abstract concepts that I've never really been able to figure out, you've got your wide variety of spirits." Mokou drew a finger down the side of her face. "Then you got the ones that come from people. Some of them fall into that whole weirdly specific conditions category, but you also got those that manage to turn themselves into youkai on purpose. A lot of magicians do that. They got a whole ritual for it. In one go, they get eternal life and a new wellspring of magic, so you can see why it's popular."

"And is that what you are?"

"Nope." Mokou straightened up and started walking. Joshua followed her. "I'm something…different."

"Explain, please."

The place Mokou led him to was a ring of old logs surrounding a patch of sand, in the middle of which was a smaller ring of stones. On warm summer days they would light a bonfire and all the children would circle around on the logs, listening to someone tell stories.

All the adults took turns as the storyteller, but Joshua and Mokou were the favorites. Joshua would regale the children with stories he had brought with him from the Outside World, as well as those found in the Bible. He wasn't especially picky too. The saga of Samson was told alongside the journey of Bilbo Baggins. The legend of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves sat comfortably alongside David and Goliath.

Mokou's tales were of a different sort, ones with fewer heroes and a great many more monsters. She would whisper of bloodthirsty spirits and twisted demons, creatures made up from the bones of the condemned that formed in executioner's fields or severed heads that crawled about on spider legs, and almost every one of her stories had a bad ending. If Joshua's stories made the kids laugh and cheer, hers would leave them shivering.

Joshua had a feeling that this particular tale would be no different.

Mokou sat down on the storyteller's log, with Joshua sitting down on the log next to hers. She held out a hand, flexed her fingers, and a ball of red flame appeared in the air over her palm. A gesture, and it leapt to the ring of stones and filled them with flame, despite there being no wood to feed the fire.

"Wish we had some marshmallows," Joshua muttered, mostly to himself.

Mokou stared blankly at him. "Some what?"

"Er, sorry. They're, uh, a kind of campfire snack. Basically puffed up balls of sugar that you'd stick on sticks and roast in the fire."

"Oh. I see. Outside World thing?"

"Yeah."

"Huh," Mokou said. She shrugged. "Okay. Well, it's like one of those stories you like to tell the kids. What'd'ya call them again? Fairy…legends? Fairy myths?"

"Oh. Fairytales. Um, we don't have fairies where I come from, but they show up a lot in really old children's stories, so we just call old stories about magic fairytales."

Mokou favored him with a thin smile. "You're a fool if you think that you don't have fairies. Or magic for that matter. They're just not out in the open like they are here."

"That's probably true," Joshua conceded.

Mokou turned her attention back to the fire. "Anyway, how do they start again? Oh right. Once upon a time, there was a terrible princess who lived on the Moon."

Joshua had readied himself to listen a great deal and speak very little, but already Mokou had made a point that he needed to have clarified. "I'm terribly sorry, but it sounded like you just said that there was a princess who lived on the Moon."

"Yeah, that's right."

Joshua stared. "And you mean that literally."

"Obviously."

"There are people. People who live on the Moon."

"Yes, lots." Mokou was starting to sound a little impatient.

"Oh," Joshua said, still staring. "So they're aliens then."

Mokou shrugged. "Well, so are you, and so am I, if you really want to get technical about things. But yes, that would be correct." A beat passed, and then she said, "You seem perturbed."

"I'm sorry, it's just that Gensokyo took a long time to get used to. Now there's aliens from the Moon."

Mokou sighed. "Fuck, Josh. Get used to it! There is literally a bunch of snobby assholes who live on the fucking Moon! Like, they got a whole city up there and everything! How is that in any way weirder than anything that goes on down here?"

"Not by much," Joshua admitted. "But even so. This is new."

Mokou rolled her eyes. "They call themselves Lunarians."

"Lunarians?"

"Yeah. Because they're from the Moon."

"Oh. Well, that's…" Joshua struggled to put his disorganized thoughts into words. "…sort of basic."

Mokou pressed her fingertips to her forehead. "We live next to the Youkai Forest, which is a forest full of youkai. To the northeast is the Youkai Mountain, which is a mountain full of, you guessed it, more youkai."

"Okay, I get it," Joshua sighed.

"And we've been dealing with assholes from the Human Village. Hey, try to guess what kind of place that is, and what most of its population is?"

Joshua held up his palms. "All right, all right. So magical people aren't exactly the most creative when it comes to names."

"Can I continue my story please?"

"Go ahead," Joshua said, motioning to her. "I'm listening."

Mokou turned her head and spat. "Right. So, once upon a freaking long time ago, there was this spoiled rotten twit of a princess up on the Moon. And she is just the _worst._ Like, okay, she was far from the firstborn so she's not getting the throne, but she's still royalty, so she lives in luxury and privilege, never wants for anything, and yet that's not enough for her. So she decides that she wants to live forever."

Joshua blinked. Wow, that was a lot of unexpected vitriol. "Oh. Uh, does she?"

"That's what I said, isn't it? I mean, the Lunarian royal family is the next best thing to immortal anyway. All this took place centuries ago, and her dad is still running things, but noooooo, that wasn't enough for her. She wanted to be _completely_ immortal. As if in, actually live forever instead of just a really long time. Recover from any injury, no matter how severe. And if anything did manage to off her, then…who cares? Her body would just rebuild itself, and she'd be good as new! If anything about her was good to begin with."

"And it…worked?"

Mokou nodded. "She already had some kind of magical gift to sort of…I don't know, freeze objects in a state of permanence. Like, if she used it on a vase or pot or whatever, then sure, you could smash it, you could chip it, you could grind it into dust, but it would just put itself back together piece by piece, heal all the cracks, and be exactly how it was. Forever. She just figured out a way to apply that power to people."

"Um…"

"She was friends with the head scientist or whatever. And they managed to brew up a kind of potion from her power that you could drink. And hey presto! Immortal."

"I guess there's no point in asking if it worked."

"If it didn't, then her dad would have just executed her and saved us all a lot of trouble," Mokou said with a derisive snort.

That gave Joshua a start. "Execute his own daughter?"

"We're talking about a rich and arrogant king with like a double-digit number of kids," Mokou said flatly. "Like, a _high_ double-digit."

"That's…huh." Joshua shook his head. "You know, there once was a time would I would find the story of Moon people turning themselves immortal to be a silly children's tale, but now it just seems not the least bit implausible."

"Right? But they didn't like that for some reason, and gave the two of them the boot. So they went and hid in Japan."

"How long ago?"

"Mmmmm, oh, about…twelve hundred years ago? At least ten, but I know it was a century or two before that."

Joshua's mouth fell open. "Mother of God."

Mokou tossed a stick into her self-sustaining fire. "I doubt it. She never had kids, and even if she did, any offspring to pop out of her would be just as profane as she is."

Joshua hesitated. As strange as Mokou's story was, he felt that he had figured out where it was going, and one point in particular was making him uncomfortable. "Mokou, don't talk of yourself like that. Regardless of what you might have done, that doesn't make you-"

Mokou made a disgusted noise deep in her throat. "The hell? Josh! I'm not talking about me! I'm not the fucking Moon princess!"

"What? B-But I thought-"

"Good fucking gods, no!" Mokou slapped her palm across her forehead. "This isn't my story yet, it's just the background! I wasn't even born when all that happened."

"Oh." Joshua winced with embarrassment. "Um, sorry for assuming."

Mokou waved his apology off. "Whatever. So yeah, they got kicked off their rock and ended up on ours. And because they weren't really the kind to think things through, they forgot to bother with the whole 'laying low thing,' it didn't take long for word to get around that there's a super-hot immortal Moon princess in town, and before they knew it she was the most eligible bachelorette in the land. Men were lining up outside her door, all seeking her hand in marriage."

"Now this is really starting to sound like a fairytale," Joshua remarked.

"Well, I'm sure she's inspired a few of those."

"Something tells me that you're not exactly fond of this Moon princess."

Mokou laughed at that. "What gave it away? The sound of absolutely contempt in my voice, or the way every single one of my muscles clenches tighter than a ferret's sphincter whenever I mention her?

"Er, all of the above?"

A long silence fell between them. Mokou continued to stare into the fire, her body unmoving, all except for the fingers of her right hand, which clenched and unclenched over and over. "Yeah, I hate her," she said at last. "Like, a lot."

"Why?"

Again Mokou fell silent, and Joshua sat and waited.

So far Mokou's tone while telling her story had been contemptuous, mocking, and irreverent. But when she finally started to speak again, her voice was soft, low, and contemplative. "Once upon a time, there was a little girl born to the prestigious Fujiwara family. Now, this girl loved her family very much. Her father was strong and kind, her mother sweet and gentle, her brothers loving and encouraging and great fun to be around. And her family's wealth and influence meant that she wanted for very little." Mokou took a deep breath, and it caught a little in her throat. "But this girl had a problem, one that cast a shadow over her happiness as she grew older. And that was that her family kept dying."

Mokou stopped talking. Joshua wondered if he ought to say something, to inquire further. But no. This was her story, and he was going to let her tell it at her pace.

"The first to go was her mother," Mokou said at last. "Thanks to a hereditary wasting disease, this girl watched her grow weaker and weaker every year, slowly breaking down until she couldn't even leave her bed. Every second she was in constant pain, and could barely drink water without coughing up blood. And her father wasted away with his wife, but in spirit rather than body."

The fire had started to change. Though it burned on still despite a lack of a fuel source, it was growing lower and darker, and it was producing far more smoke.

_Smoke of what?_ Joshua wondered, but he felt it wise not to ask.

"The next was her brother," Mokou continued. "You see, the girl's family had a problem. An enemy. Another prestigious family was actively trying to destroy them."

"Why?" Joshua had to ask.

Mokou waved off his question. "It doesn't matter. Something stupid, from before even her father was born, and it just kept escalating like those things do, until it was like there wasn't a time when they hadn't been enemies. But for most of the time, it was just them trying to, you know, humiliate one another, sabotage each other's business plans, maybe a surprise raid or two, nothing really out of the ordinary for that time." She took another deep, shuddering breath. "And then one day they received a box, a box with no note or message or anything. And in it was her brother's head."

Joshua stared into the smoke so he wouldn't have to see the look on Mokou's face.

"Well, with one wife and one son down, that was pretty much half of her father's family," Mokou continued. "And since, you know, the disease that murdered her mother was hereditary, and only hit the women, she was next, and there was nothing she could do about it. Even before she became a woman, she could feel it growing inside her, like a hungry black pit, just eating her from the inside-out. Soon it would be three of them gone, and with the Sonozikas pressing them harder and harder, who knew when her last brother would wake up with a knife in his heart or take in a mouthful of poison?"

Joshua started at that. "The _Sonozikas?_ Wait, you mean-"

"The same," Mokou said with a bitter laugh. "Yeah, here's a spoiler: they ended up winning. They're still around and running the Human Village, whereas the Fujiwara family is only around because its remaining member literally can't die." She shook her head. "Anyway, to move things along, the girl found out that there was someone very _special_ living among them, a bonafide Princess from the fucking Moon, and an immortal one at that. Beautiful, powerful, forever young, and completely and utterly safe from things like disease and assassinations and slipping and cracking her head on the stones and having her guts ripped out, her brain flash-cooked, her head taken right off her shoulders, her entire body reduced to ash or sliced into tiny pieces and spread all the way across-"

"Mokou!" Joshua cried. "Please, I _don't_ need to know those details!"

Mokou laughed again. "Yeah, sorry. I guess you wouldn't. Anyway, word got out that this princess was being courted by everything in Japan that had two legs and a functional penis, and there was supposed to be some kind of quest, a sort of wander the country collecting these rare treasures, and the one to bring them all back would win her hand. And the girl convinced her father to give it a shot."

"Um…" Joshua frowned. "Ah, I'm sorry if this is out of line, but…"

"Why?" Mokou shrugged. "Well, I didn't know better then. I just heard 'immortal' and 'princess,' and felt that if my father was to remarry, then it ought to be someone he wouldn't worry about losing, you know? And I was kind of hoping that she would share her secret of immortality with him and my brother. Not that it ended up mattering, as he ended up coming home a year later, empty-handed and humiliated."

"Oh."

"The quest was a scam," Mokou said flatly. "Pure and simple. A complete wild goose chase. Turns out, the princess already _had_ all of those treasures locked away in her closet, and was just sending those men off just so they would leave her alone, without caring that she was also sending them into some of the most dangerous places in Japan. See, this was before Gensokyo took in all the gods and monsters and youkai and the like, so the country was a lot like Gensokyo is now, and most of those who went on this quest never came back. My father was one of the lucky ones to have survived. Too bad the journey destroyed his health and drained his wealth so that he had to sell off most of his land just to avoid total ruin. And he didn't forget that it was me that told him to do it."

Joshua had nothing to say to that at all.

"So yeah, total disaster," Mokou said. "On the bright side, it got the Sonozikas off our back, seeing how they were the ones who bought most of those properties. I guess they felt that doing so meant that they won. Which, okay, it did." She clicked her tongue. "Anyway, a couple years go by, and the girl's just getting weaker and weaker. She tried to stave it off, but with her family's wealth gone, they couldn't afford the same treatments that kept her mother alive as long as they did, and even if they did, it wasn't likely that her father would have bought them."

"That's terrible," Joshua said softly. "To just let one's own daughter waste away like that."

"Whatever," Mokou said. "But then they heard an interesting bit of news. Turns out that the Emperor was one of those seeking the Moon Princess's hand, and he just plain refused her bullshit quest and wasn't interested in taking no for an answer. So hey, good for him. But she said no anyway, and that made him angry. And I guess that she figured having the ruler of the country you're trying to hide in would make one's eternal life kind of difficult, she tried for making a kind of peace offering. She gifted him with the same potion that made her immortal in the first place."

"Oh," Joshua said. _"Oh._ Well, that's quite the gift."

"Maybe, but he didn't think so, seeing how it just made him even more angry. So much so that he tried to destroy it."

"Er…why?"

Mokou shrugged. "Fuck if I know. Maybe he thought it was a trick, maybe it's because he was already an old man and the potion didn't give you your youth back, so being stuck like that forever would wear off its novelty pretty fast. But anyway, even though he might have been smarter than the rest of her would-be fiancées, he was just as dramatic, because instead of just pouring it onto the ground and sending a bunch of his men to drag her back in chains, he decides to straight-up send it off in this grand caravan and have it thrown into a live volcano!"

Just when it seemed that Mokou's story started to sound at least a little grounded in reality, it took another fantastical turn. "Okay," Joshua said at last. "Why a volcano?"

"Fuck if I know!" Mokou said again with a dramatic gesture into the sky with both hands. "He up and died not long after, so I never got the chance to ask him. But whatever, you don't pull a stunt like that without wanting people to know about it, so of course word reaches the girl that the secret of the Moon Princess's immortality is headed across the land to be thrown into a fiery mountain. So she decided to steal it."

"Right," Joshua nodded. "Because of the disease."

Mokou shook her head. "Nah, it wasn't going to be for me. At that point I already resigned myself to death. But with my family half gone and the rest disgraced and me being dishonored in my father's eyes, then fuck it, what did I have to lose? Maybe if I got that much for him, so that he could be immortal, or my remaining brother, or his new wife if he managed to get one, then maybe I'd be redeemed in his eyes. That, or I would die in the attempt, but honestly I didn't care about that."

"Well, obviously you succeeded," Joshua remarked. "I mean, not in the way you were planning, but you did manage to steal the potion from the caravan."

"No shit," Mokou said, giving him a sidelong glance.

"How?" Joshua asked. "I mean, I imagine it would have been guarded."

Mokou didn't answer. She just stared long and hard into the fire, the look on her face completely blank.

"Mokou?"

Several more seconds stretched past, and when Mokou finally spoke, her voice was rough. "You don't need to know that. Just know that things went sideways pretty badly, and by the end of it, the girl was lying in the road, potion in hand, while she bled into the dust."

"Oh." Joshua wondered exactly what had happened to make Mokou clam up like that, especially after having discussed several other things of a sensitive and personal nature.

"Well, this girl was now scared," Mokou continued. "She knew she was to die soon, but for some reason the thought of dying _now,_ before when the disease was to take her naturally, terrified her. And in her pain and panic she did something terrible." A slow, thin smile spread across her face like a knife wound, one completely devoid of humor and joy. "She drank the potion herself."

"Anyone else would have done the same," Joshua said.

Mokou didn't seem to have heard him. "It was only supposed to be a sip. Just the smallest of sips, not enough to turn her immortal, but enough to heal her hurts, maybe even burn the disease out of her! But the second the potion touched her tongue, she couldn't stop! Three quick gulps, and it was gone!" She closed her eyes. "And then the pain started. It was like she was being immolated from the inside out. You see, the potion had not been designed with normal Humans in mind. The girl was not some long-lived Lunarian Royal, she was just a normal girl with a weak body, and it wasn't strong enough to withstand the changes the potion was trying to bring upon her. Her hurts were healed, yes, and it did burn the illness right out of her, but everything else burned as well."

To Joshua's alarm, Mokou had begun to burn as well. It was small, but tiny, flickering flames had appeared on the back of her hands and her shoulders. She didn't seem to notice though. Her clothes weren't even browning.

"Her organs failed over and over, only to being forced back into working condition, only to fail again. Her bones and muscles dissolved, only to reform in their own soup. Her skin was sloughed right off of her, only to be replaced again and again. Blood poured from her like a river, but never seemed to run out."

Now the fire was spreading up her arms. Joshua was torn between trusting Mokou's claims of being fireproof and saying something to warn her. Certainly, everything she had said and done had given him every indication of her not having anything to fear from the flames, but that sort of thing was hard to recall when your friend is literally self-immolating right in front of your eyes. "It seemed like it would never end, that she was cursed to remain in that perpetual state of destruction and rebirth, writhing in agony on that dirt road forever." Then, as the flame rose up to wreathe her head like an Angel's halo, she turned to smile at Joshua. "And that is when it came to her."

Joshua started. "What?"

"The Phoenix," Mokou said. Her voice had something Joshua had never heard from her before: reverence. "The fire bird of the morning. At first she thought that she had imagined it, that it was just her own pain-addled mind conjuring up delusions, that the flame she was seeing was her own eyeballs boiling in their own juices. But then she heard it speak inside her head. It told her that she had taken something not meant for her, and she was unable to handle its power. That her imperfect body could not adapt and would never again be whole, unless she accepted its help."

"Help?" Joshua swallowed and scooted a few feet from her. Mokou might be unharmed by the fire, but he had no such protection, and he was starting to feel the heat radiate off her body.

"It would bind itself to her," Mokou said, still oblivious to the fact that she was very much on fire now. "You see, it was growing old. Phoenixes are creatures of rebirth. They are born, they grow old, and they die, incinerating themselves in their own flame. But from their own ashes they are born anew, young again. But it had done so too many times, and with every rebirth it lost a little more of itself. It was too weak to continue the cycle, just as the girl was too weak. But together, their respective, imperfect forms of immortality might stabilize one another. They might metamorphose into something whole."

"So, you accepted?" Joshua said. He tried to make the question sound casual, but that was very difficult to do when the person you're talking to was burning like a torch.

"Well, I was screaming in the throes of unbelievable agony, so I was exactly in a position to refuse," Mokou responded. "But as I lay there suffering, it entered me. And then the pain _really_ began. Its fire scorched me. And I don't just mean my body, _that_ was burnt up in seconds. I mean it scorched me to my now immortal soul, burning away every single drop of mortality and impermanence within me. Time ceased to have meaning. Seconds stretched into _unbearable_ , _indescribable_ years. And through it all, all I could do was wish for death, anything to make the pain stop." She paused for a moment, and then the fires covering her changed, turning from scarlet to gold. "And then my body started to grow back. In the heart of that inferno, my bones forced themselves into existence, reforming and joining together. My organs regrew and reconnected, my meat and ligaments puffing up like tumors, and then skin crawled all over that horror, sealing it all inside. And unlike before, it wasn't destroyed again."

She paused again. In her silence, Joshua was finding it very hard not to stare at her, and it wasn't just due to the absurd novelty of her being on fire.

Mokou had always been lovely, but Joshua had never thought of her in those terms. For one, until that very hour, he had always thought that he was old enough to be her father, but now he knew that the age difference was weighed far, far, _far_ in the opposite direction, and to an absolutely ridiculous extent at that. For another, even if they had been around the same age, there had always been something that felt dangerous about Mokou, something beyond her rough nature and mysterious past, something that told her that she was someone to be kept at arms' distance.

Joshua had of had always cared for her as a friend and a member of their strange family, and he knew that she loved the children as much as he did and would do anything to protect them, but he knew the look of someone who had stepped onto a bad path and walked it for a long time. He had seen that look many times back during his time with the Military, and when he had been in rehab. Hell, he had worn it himself for quite a while. And while he always did what he could to help those who had it to leave that path as he did, he knew when someone had a self-destructive nature, and Mokou most certainly did; he had seen that about her even before she had revealed just how thoroughly he had underestimated the extent of the damage.

But in that moment, as she sat there bathed in golden light, softly describing being transformed on both a physical and spiritual level, she was the most beautiful thing Joshua had ever seen. And not in any desirable or sexual way; she looked almost angelic, an ethereal being far beyond his comprehension that a lowly mortal like him had no business breathing the same air as.

Which, when one thought about it, was exactly what she was.

"It was the weirdest damn thing," Mokou said. 'I was lying there, naked in a dirt road, staring up at the sky. I could barely remember my own name or what had happened to me. The pain was gone, and yet it…wasn't. I still felt the heat, but it didn't hurt anymore. It was like hot coals had been sealed up in my stomach, but my stomach had been reinforced with steel, if that makes any sense. And the black pit was _gone,_ the disease fully burned away, never to return! And I was changed, changed and made to never change again."

Then she sighed, and the flames suddenly snuffed out all at once, both the ones covering her body and the burning sphere in the center of the circle, and she was just plain old Fujiwara no Mokou again, the prickly, yet well-meaning, cook of the Aoki Yume's Children's Home. "Anyway, that's why I'm immortal. The end."

Joshua was already reeling from everything that he had seen and heard over the last hour or so, but this completely knocked him off his gourd. "Wait, _what?"_ he gawked. _"_ But what happened next? Where's the rest of the story? What did you do after that? What happened with your father, or the Sonozikas, or the Moon princess? What have you been doing all this time, and-"

"No."

"No?"

Mokou stood up and brushed off her pants. "I told you why I'm immortal. I told you why I didn't die, and that was more than I usually like to tell. Everything else, everything I've done since then, is my own damn business. So, the end."

Joshua looked to the scorch mark in the ground and the smoke rising from it. He still had an endless bounty of questions, but now that he thought of it, Mokou was right. This was none of his business. Her story was obviously heartbreaking, painful, and horrifyingly long, and she had told as much as she felt comfortable telling.

To be truthful, Joshua felt like he was intruding just by having heard as much as he had. He had known that the mysterious young woman with the rough-around-the-edges personality that the kids had dragged in nearly dead (though he now supposed that she had actually been dead) from the snow had a dark past, but he had never imagined anything on this scale. His friend was literally one of those tragic monsters of legend, the kind who had started off as a simple Human only to be doomed to wander the earth forever due to one, avoidable mistake. She was of the same sort as the Wandering Jew, Stingy Jack, or even Cain himself. Who was he to demand anything from her?

Furthermore, how was he supposed to treat her now? Did they just go back to the way things were and never bring it up again? As tight-lipped as Mokou had suddenly become, Joshua knew that the rest of the story would reflect poorly on her. She had killed people, of that he had no doubt. She had probably killed a great many people, and a lot of them had probably been innocents, people who had been in the wrong place and the wrong time.

Furthermore, he knew that she had done other things. Her torture of those spiders had been cold, efficient, and spoke of a wealth of experience. The few bits she had dropped about the Moon Princess, wherever she was, were nothing short of horrific, and he was willing to bet that those talents had also been employed against those who couldn't simply regenerate from death and dismemberment.

By any decent metric, Mokou was a monster, one comparable to Vlad the Impaler or Jack the Ripper.

And yet…

"Go ahead," Mokou said.

"Eh?"

One arm crossing her chest to rest on the opposite elbow, Mokou rolled the wrist of the other. "Decent guy like you hearing a story like mine probably changes how you see me. And I think you've put together some of the pieces of the parts I didn't tell you. So tell me, oh Man of God: have I earned my damnation? Is there something wrong with the universe that I'm never going to see it, that I'm going to be walking the earth long after Gensokyo is gone, after the Outside World had crumbled away, after the rest of humanity is extinct, that I will see the Heat Death of the universe and what lays beyond it? I know a thing or two about your God, as well as all the others, and most of them have some sort of endgame in mind for everything. But no matter what it is, I'm going to come through it, and no matter what perfect world comes out of it, it'll have my soiled feet walking it." She grinned. "Kind of seems a little unjust, don't it?"

Joshua breathed in and out. Wow, this was so very much above his paygrade. He thought in it, letting the various parts of his mind and heart argue it out. As he did, Mokou stood and waited.

Joshua breathed in and out. Wow, this was so very much above his paygrade. He thought in it, letting the various parts of his mind and heart argue it out.

Unfortunately, nothing inside him could come up with a satisfactory response. This was so far above him that his mind felt crushed just by thinking about it. If he had learned that Mokou had been a murderer or something similar, then yes, that would probably change the complexion of their relationship, but not in any meaningful way, as he had known many killers and worse in his time.

"It's okay," Mokou said at last.

"Huh?"

"You don't know what to make of me. You don't know what to think." She nodded solemnly. "It's okay. I understand. It's too much to take in all at once."

Joshua stared down at the ground. "Mokou, I-"

"I'm a monster," Mokou said. "The kind they make stories of, one as dark and evil to ever wander the black corners of the world. I've always known that. But I want you to understand something, Josh. Even if you end up hating me, I'm still _your_ monster. Yours, the kids, Satoko's, Haruna's, Shion's, Haruhi's, all of you. I'm on your side, and I swear if anything tries to hurt any one of you again, then they have to go through me first. And they'll find that a lot more difficult than they bargained for."

It was a nice sentiment, but Joshua was still unable to wrap his head around the situation. "Okay," he said. "But why?"

Mokou quirked an eyebrow. "Why what?"

"Why…Why do you _care?_ Why do you care so much about these kids? Why do you care about us? It just doesn't make any sense!"

"Ouch, man. That hurts." Mokou stuck her hands in her pockets and rocked back and forth on her heels. "And say what you want about me, but I've never purposefully gone after anyone innocent, _especially_ not kids. That's a level of evil that I always swore I'd never fall to. Simple, isn't it?"

"No, it's not!" Joshua said, wringing his hands in agitation.

"Why not?"

"I…" In his struggles to articulate his thoughts, Joshua suddenly recalled a terrible story his platoon captain used to tell, a story that Joshua had always found incredibly troubling, mainly because he knew it was true. "Okay, you told your story to make your point, so here's one to make mine: once upon a time, there was a soldier walking through a valley where the enemy had destroyed a village, and he find the body of a little girl lying on the side of the road, run through with a sword.

"Now this soldier feels like someone had punched him right in the gut, and he falls to his knees and takes the girl's body in his arms as he cries. 'Why, God? Why would you let something so terrible happen to such a beautiful child?'

"But the soldier still has a mission to do, and there is no time for burials, so he leaves the girl and continues on his way. Soon he finds two more dead little girls, their heads cut off, and he stops and starts weeping again, condemning the cruelness of the world.

"Soon he finds two dead little boys and three dead little girls, and he again cries for them, but he doesn't stop. A few minutes later he comes across a full dozen dead children, and though he shakes his head at the terrible sight, he neither stops nor cries.

"And finally, before he's left the valley, he comes across an entire elementary school, all of the children executed, their bodies just left for the flies. And he barely even looks at them before continuing on his way."

"Damn," Mokou said after he was done. "And I thought my story was gruesome. You trying to one-up me here or something?"

Joshua slowly breathed out. "My point is, you've lived hundreds upon hundreds of years. You've seen so much death: men, women, and children. You've also caused quite a bit of it too. Normal people like us, we must be like mayflies compared you to, gone in a blink of an eye. So why do these kids matter so much, when by your standards they'll be gone before you notice?"

At this, Mokou's face turned serious, all hints of wryness falling away. "Good question," she said. "Really good question. And I guess…Okay, look: I may be a monster, but the two years I've spent here with you guys, cooking for you, working with you, helping you, playing with the kids and everything is the first time for as long as I can remember that I felt like…like something other than a monster. Does that make sense?"

Joshua stared up at her. Then he slowly nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess it does."

"Good," Mokou said. "So at least we know where we stand. But for now-"

Suddenly some kind of clamor was being raised over at the house. Joshua heard people shouting and running, and then Shion started calling to them from the porch.

"Hey!" she yelled. "You two stop slouching about and get over here! The kids are waking up!"

Joshua and Mokou exchanged looks of surprise. Then the two bolted toward the house.

…

"Kids!"

Rumia and Kohta started at the sudden exclamation. They looked up to see Miss Satoko standing in the door of the sick room, her crease-lined face lighting up and her eyes wet with tears.

"Oh, thank the gods, you're all right!" Miss Satoko practically fell to her knees in front of the children and threw her arms around Rumia and Kohta both. A little taken back by the sudden display of affection, Rumia glanced uncertainly at Kohta from over Miss Satoko's shoulder, who shot her the same look back. Then the two gingerly wrapped their arms around the woman in return.

"I was…I was so afraid…" Miss Satoko whispered. "When you disappeared, I thought I would never…" Then she drew back and smiled at the two. "But you're here." She cupped their faces with her hands. "You're all right."

Rumia flinched at the touch. For some reason, her palm just felt way too warm _._ "I'm…we're…"

"Shhh." Miss Satoko pressed a finger to Rumia's lips. It hurt. "It's okay. We can talk later." She leaned forward to kiss the top of Rumia's forehead. "Just rest for now. It's enough to know you're alive."

Rumia instinctively drew back from the kiss, but stopped herself. What was she doing? Miss Satoko kissed their foreheads all the time! Still, it felt…wrong this time. Her lips felt _hot,_ like a branding iron was being pressed against her brow. Still, she gritted her teeth and bore it.

"Miss Satoko?" Kohta said. His voice still sounded weirdly creaky and hollow. "W-What about…" He coughed. "What about the others? They won't wake up."

"Don't worry, they're fine," Miss Satoko said. "It's just that…" She made a face. "Well, the spiders stung them, you see. They still need to get it out of their systems. But they should be waking up soon."

Rumia cast a dubious look over to Kana, who was still breathing shallowly.

"Okay, but how did we get…home?" Kohta said. "Because I don't…"

Miss Satoko stroked his hair. "Mr. Joshua and Miss Mokou found you in the forest," she said. "They said you were lying unconscious, like you had fallen asleep, and they carried you back."

"Miss Mokou's back?" Rumia whispered. It still hurt a little to talk.

Miss Satoko nodded. "She got back right after you two went off. As soon as she found out what happened she went right after you."

"Oh." Rumia's face twisted up as she tried to put all of her scattered thoughts in order. "Uh, are we…in trouble?"

That made Miss Satoko laugh a little. "No, Rumia. I mean, normally, yes you would be, because what you did was very foolish and dangerous. But I think what you went through was more than enough punishment. I'm just glad you're still alive."

"Alive," Kohta whispered. He suddenly sat straight up. "Alive! Miss Satoko. It's Eiko! She-"

The smile vanished from Miss Satoko's face, to be replaced with naked pain. "I know, I know," she said hoarsely. "Mokou told me everything."

"What?"

"Miss Mokou and Mr. Joshua…found her too. They brought her home as well."

"Brought her…you mean her body?"

Miss Satoko swallowed and nodded. "Yes."

"But…the spiders! They would've-"

"The spiders won't be a problem anymore."

Rumia, Kohta, and Miss Satoko all looked to the door. Miss Mokou was there, leaning against the doorpost with her hands in her pockets.

"Wh-What?" Rumia said.

"You don't have to worry about the spiders," Miss Mokou said. "I took care of them."

"Mokou," Miss Satoko said. "Maybe this had better-"

"Can we have a few moments?" Miss Mokou said.

"I don't think-"

"I won't be long. Just need to ask a few questions."

"It's okay," Rumia told Miss Satoko. "I'd like to talk to her."

"Me too," Kohta said.

Miss Satoko hesitated, but then nodded. "Okay. Don't take too long." She kissed them both again. Rumia winced when Miss Satoko's lips touched her forehead

She passed by Miss Mokou, stopped, and laid a hand on the other woman's shoulder. Miss Mokou gave her fingers a brief squeeze before she left.

"Well," Miss Mokou said as she entered the room and closed the door, leaving them alone with her. "Sure am glad you two are up and about at least. Feel all right?"

"No," Rumia said.

"Didn't think so." Miss Mokou sat in front of them, legs folded and hands on her knees. "Apparently you two snuck out the moment you could. Didn't wait for any grown-ups at all, just plunged into the forest yourselves, right?"

"Yes," Kohta said.

"Heh. Well, that was fucking stupid, but based on what I've learned, if you hadn't, someone else would've probably died too. So, you know, good job."

Rumia hesitated, and then asked. "M-Miss Mokou. The…spiders."

"What about them?"

"Did you really, you know…"

Miss Mokou nodded. "I did. Your little firework show told me pretty plain where to find them. Found the four of them trying to put out the fires with Eiko's body still on the table. That told me enough."

"But…they're youkai. They'll come back."

"No, they won't," Mokou said with absolute surety. "Youkai can come back from most things, but there are a few kinds of death that keep them. And I so happen to know at least one of them."

Rumia felt a chill sweep up her back. "What did you do to them?"

A spark flickered in the dark pupils of Mokou's maroon eyes. "I burned them alive." She rotated her right wrist around on her knee, moving the palm upward. A hovering ball of flame suddenly flashed into existence over her hand. "But first I broke them. Slowly. And with great deliberation. I broke them, I hurt them, I made them scream, and after they had told me everything I wanted to know, I set a fire deep inside them that roasted them until their flesh had crisped and their fat melted and even their bones turned to ash." She closed her fingers shut, snuffing out the flame. "Isn't as good stopping them from taking you in the first place, but at the very least I made their meal more expensive than they were willing to pay."

"Good," rasped a weak-sounding voice.

Rumia turned to see Haruko struggling to sit up. Her former nemesis looked pretty bad, not as bad as Kana, but she was still gaunt and haggard. Her long dark hair, usually so carefully brushed and cleaned, was a nightmare of oily knotted strands that hung in clumps around her face.

"Good," Haruko said again. "They deserve it."

"How long have you been awake?" Kohta asked.

Haruko coughed from deep inside her chest. "Few minutes," she muttered. "When Miss Satoko was still here." She looked up at Miss Mokou. "You brought Eiko back home, right?"

Miss Mokou nodded. "Me and Joshua did. We were just waiting for you to wake up before we put her to rest."

Tears shown in Haruko's eyes. She blinked several times, sniffed, and wiped her eyes with her arm. "Th-Thank you."

A heavy silence passed between them. Then Miss Mokou sighed and said, "But that wasn't the only reason I was waiting for you to wake up. See, I learned most of what there is to know about your rescue from the spiders, but not what happened after. They said that they stopped following you when you went into a place called the bone grove, which had something called the black circle. That's where I found you, all of you. You were all lying lifeless just outside the bone grove. What happened?"

"The…bone grove?" Rumia repeated.

"Yes. A place filled with black trees that had been turned to stone, that had skeletons fused into their trunks. And its center had this circle of black sand." Miss Mokou shook her head. "Damn. I thought I had seen every ugly corner of Gensokyo, but that was a new one, even for me. Even so, nothing happened the whole time I was in there. I tried setting the trees on fire, but they wouldn't burn. I tried melting the sand, but it just swallowed up my fire like it was nothing, and that _does not_ happen. But I felt like there was something in there, something that was deliberately locking me out. So I need to know what happened to you all in there."

"Nothing," Rumia, Kohta, and Haruko all said in unison.

Miss Mokou narrowed her eyes. "Well. That response was…quick. And unanimous. And obviously not true."

"Nothing happened!" Haruko insisted.

"Oh, yeah? So, what, you just fell unconscious in the middle of the Youkai Forest for several minutes without anything picking you off? The spider chasing you just up and decided to leave you there for no reason?"

"Yes!" Rumia said crossly. Why couldn't Miss Mokou just drop it? It wasn't any of her business!

"Huh," Miss Mokou said. "I see."

Then, moving quicker than a striking snake, she reached up with both hands to grip Rumia and Kohta by the chins.

Rumia tried to recoil, but the fingers holding onto her jaw were too strong. And if the touch of Miss Satoko's hand had been uncomfortably warm, Miss Mokou's felt hotter than a cattle brand. It was searing into her skin, so much so that she could practically smell her own flesh sizzling.

"STOP IT!" Kohta screamed.

"LET US GO!" Rumia agreed. Haruko lunged forward and shoved Miss Mokou in the chest.

Miss Mokou didn't budge, but she did raise a single eyebrow. "Well," she said. "That answers that."

Then she let them go.

The three of them scrambled away from her, putting as much distance between them and Miss Mokou. "What do you think you're doing?" Kohta demanded. "Don't touch us!"

Miss Mokou said nothing. She just calmly looked from one face to the other, her narrowed eyes piercing into theirs.

Then the doorknob started rattling. "Mokou?" Miss Satoko said from the other side. "Mokou, what was that? What are you doing?"

"Huh," Miss Mokou said.

"Open the door! Mokou?"

Miss Mokou stood up. "Well, that's everything I need to know. You three get some rest. Awake or not, you're definitely not fully recovered."

"Yes, we are!" Haruko protested. "We're fine!"

"Uh-huh. Sure you are." Miss Mokou walked over to the door and opened it, revealing not only Miss Satoko, but the rest of the grown-ups as well, all crowded outside the door.

Without saying anything, Mokou left the room and shut the door, leaving the six of them alone.

…

"Mokou, what the _hell_ was that?" Shion hissed. "What were you doing to them?"

"Exactly," Satoko said, a cold look in her eyes. "You have five seconds to explain why they were screaming before I-"

Mokou held up a finger, silencing them. "No," she said. "Not here. Haruna's room. Now."

Haruna folded her arms. "Kid, you better explain yourself right now."

"Not. Here," Mokou repeated. "Head to Haruna's room and lock the door."

"Mokou, you were hurting them!" Joshua said. "They were screaming, and-"

Mokou then noticed something. She held up a palm, silencing him, as she turned her attention over to the stairs.

Practically every child in the orphanage not currently in the sick room were clustered around the top steps, staring intently at them.

"OUTSIDE!" Mokou roared.

The kids cleared out faster than she had ever seen them do. She listened as they ran, hopped, and in some cases tripped their way downstairs and out the front door.

When the thumping stopped and the door slammed shut, she turned to the rest of the orphanage's staff.

"Okay, so now can we go to Haruna's room so I can explain why we are now all in very real danger?" she said.

That did it. Their looks of confusion and anger turned to ones of confusion and fear. "Okay," Haruna said. "But why my room? Why not yours?"

"Because my window still has a big hole in it from my hasty exit earlier, and yours has the thickest walls."

"Well, I'm a light sleeper," Haruna said, and a bit indignantly at that. "And there's always some child walking the halls every night."

"Right, but this isn't something I want anyone listening in on, so if we could…" Mokou motioned down the hall with both hands.

The six of them quietly filed through the hall and into Haruna's room. It was a very nice place for such a rough-looking woman, decorated with bright colors and several chalk drawings she had done herself.

"All right," Satoko said once Haruna had locked the door. "We're here. Now tell me what you did to them, and _maybe_ I'll consider not expelling you right now."

"I grabbed their chins to get a good look at their eyes," Mokou said. She pinched her own jaw between her thumb and index finger as demonstration. "Like this."

"That's it?" Shion said. "But they sounded like you were burning them!"

"That's because that's how it felt. Satoko, did you notice how they flinched when you kissed them?"

Satoko stared blankly at her. "Did they?"

"They did. In fact, I'd say they were scared of being touched at all.

"Mokou, we're begging you," Shion said. "Say things that make sense!"

Mokou sighed. Oh well, she was in for it already. "Fine. I already told Satoko and Joshua all this, so look them up for the details, but the long and short of it, I'm immortal."

Haruhi made noise that wasn't quite a gasp and not quite a hiccup, but was very similar to both.

"Yeah, so to just preemptively answer your questions, no, I'm not a youkai," Mokou said. "I'm Human, but several hundred years ago I drank a magic potion that made it so I'm going to live forever. And I later got super-charged with a whole lot of fire, so that's what that is all about. But anyway, I've been around a long time, and know how to recognize certain things-"

"Excuse me?" Haruhi squeaked. "Uh, I know this is very important, but can we go back to the part where you're _immortal_ and apparently _hundreds of years old?"_

Shion shrugged. "Makes sense to me."

"Well, yeah," Haruna said. "I mean, it's obvious, isn't it?"

"You two _knew?"_ Haruhi said.

"Well, no, but I figured it had to be something like that," Shion said.

"I did," Haruna said.

"You did?" Mokou said.

"Sure. I mean, I've been hearing stories about the Daughter of the Phoenix my whole life, one that's supposed to be wandering the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Then all of a sudden the kids drag in a frozen corpse that is all sorts of dead, except no it's breathing again in minutes, and all of a sudden those stories stop." Haruna shrugged. "All in all, it wasn't hard to put together."

"Huh," Mokou said thoughtfully. "Well, when you put it like that…"

Haruhi held up her hands and stomped off to a nearby chair. "I need to sit down."

"So…you're really that old, huh?" Shion asked.

"Yeah," Mokou said. "I've been around basically forever, and probably will still be around after everything's gone."

Shion thoughtfully rubbed her chin. "How much of forever are we talking? Like, since the beginning of time, or…"

"Oh, no," Mokou snickered. "I was exaggerating. But about a hundred years or so before Gensokyo was created."

Haruhi jolted in her chair. "You were born _before_ Gensokyo was created?!"

"Yeah, and let me tell you, that was a hell of a news story."

"A-And you told…" Haruhi pressed a palm to her forehead. "Okay, I get why you told Satoko, but why _Joshua?_ I mean, no offense, Josh. I didn't mean it like that."

"None taken," Joshua said. "And, well, I just, you know, asked her."

Haruhi stared at him for a good long time before nodding. "Yeah, that makes sense."

Satoko sighed. "Well, this is all very fascinating, but it's distracting from the main point. Mokou, continue."

"Right," Mokou said. "So, I've been around, I've seen and done a lot of things, and I've learned to recognize certain things as well."

"Things like what?" Haruna asked.

Mokou frowned. "Now, I only got a short look at them, but it was enough that I'd bet every single one of my remaining centuries that those kids found… _something_ in the bone grove, something that left its mark on them."

"What is the bone grove?" Shion asked. "Do you even know anything about it?"

Mokou shook her head. "Never even heard of it until now, which bothers me. I mean, sure, I've never really been the one to go digging up any of Gensokyo's endless mysteries, but something that big really sounds like something I should have at least heard of. The spiders said that it's a place that nobody goes to, that everyone in the forest just avoids and doesn't talk about. Can't say that I blame them."

"The spiders," Satoko repeated. "That you tortured."

"Yeah, those are the ones. But anyway, even if I've never heard of this particular batch of creepy, it's clear to me that even though _I_ didn't find anything specific in it, those kids _did._ And they took a piece of it with them."

Satoko swallowed. "What is that even supposed to mean? What did it do to them?"

"Exactly what I said. Whatever it is, they got a piece of it inside them, and it's influencing them somehow."

Joshua inhaled sharply. "Wait, are you telling me that they're _possessed?"_

"Hell if I know," Mokou said. "Could be, but I don't think so. They seemed mostly normal until I tried to talk to them about the bone grove, which is when they got weirdly hostile. And they didn't freak out until I touched them. So I'm thinking that it's just, you know, influencing them."

"Is it dangerous?" Shion asked.

"Undoubtedly," Mokou said with a nod.

Everyone fell silent as they all digested her answer. Then Shion said, "So, what do we do about it?"

Mokou thought on that. "In the long term? Not sure. But for now, keep them together in the sick room and away from the rest of the kids. Don't let anyone go in there, and don't let them leave, not until we learn more about what it is and what it's doing to them."

"No!" Satoko cried. "Are you out of your mind? I'm not going to make them prisoners in their own home!"

Mokou had been expecting that kind of reaction, and while it was understandable, this wasn't the time to err on the side of kindness. "Would you rather one of the other kids end up dead? We already lost Eiko. You wanna risk someone else?"

"What about the funeral?" Haruhi said softly. "We put off laying Eiko to rest so they could be there. Haruko and Hayate were her friends. Are we going to keep them locked up during that?"

"Probably."

"No," Satoko repeated. "Absolutely not. Mokou, you go too far!"

Mokou gave a nonchalant shrug with one shoulder. "Someone has to."

"She's right," Joshua said to her. "Satoko, I mean. This is just cruel. They're already isolated from the rest of the Human community, and now you want to isolate them further?"

"If I gotta," Mokou said. "Look, I'm not saying lock them up for life. I'll go get the Hakurei shrine maiden. She's an expert in this sort of thing. Hell, I'll scare up Yukari Yakumo if I have to."

_That_ got a reaction from the others, almost as much as the reveal about her immortality did. "Yukari _Yakumo!"_ Haruhi gasped. _"_ You know Yukari Yakumo?"

"Not personally," Mokou said. "But it's a kind of 'know people who know her' sort of thing. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I can get her down here if I have to."

"If you want to bring her into this, then do so," Satoko said. "Bring anyone you think can help. But I am not locking them up, and they are not missing the funeral."

Mokou scowled. "Bad idea, Satoko. When a kid gets sick, we keep them away from the others, don't we?"

"It's not the same thing!"

"Satoko, I think she's right," Haruna said in a low voice.

Satoko gaped at the older woman. For her part, Haruna merely folded her arms. "If those kids have been touched by something evil, then it's our responsibility to do what we can to keep everyone safe. I know it sounds cruel, but we're on a knife's edge already. We can't afford to take risks."

"But that's what Skinner and Sonozika are doing, isn't it?" Satoko said. "Saying that we're infected with evil to keep us isolated from everyone else? How are we any different if we do this?"

"Because number one, _they're_ just doing it because they're hateful bigots," Mokou said. "We actually have proof that something's wrong. And number two, we intend to help the kids. They're not."

Satoko still looked unconvinced. "That's not good enough, Mokou. After everything they've been through, I'm not going to separate them from their friends. I'm not going to treat them like monsters!"

"Satoko, it ain't forever," Haruna said, laying a meaty hand on the taller woman's shoulder. "Mokou knows people that can help, right? Powerful people who specialize in this kind of crap. So we just keep them by themselves as a precaution until these people show up to take a look at things. Then they'll fix the kids right up, and everything will go back to normal."

Satoko looked hurt by Haruna's words. "Haruna, you can't be taking her side! You've helped raise these children even longer than I have! You know how close they are with one another! I mean, Rumia and Kohta have been fighting with Haruko, Hayate, and Eiko for as long as I can remember, and they still risked their lives to save them!"

"Think, Satoko! Think with your head! The safety of the children come first! Of course we'll do everything we can to ensure that they're okay, but until then, we need to be smart!"

"But-"

"What if whatever it is takes control of them when they're asleep?" Mokou demanded. "I've seen things like that happen before. What if we wake up to find everyone's throats slit? Or the house set on fire. Or-"

"Stop, Mokou! Just stop talking!"

Mokou's gaze was like steel. "You know I'm right."

"I…" Satoko's eyes welled up with tears. "Fine then! If you think it's so important, then fine! But only as long as it takes to get them help, and they are _not_ missing the funeral!"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Mokou said. "We still don't-"

"They're going to be there, and that's final! And speaking of which, seeing how you're so good with fire, you can handle the cremation. Immediately."

Mokou sighed. "Fine. And if they must be there, then fine. But at the very least keep them apart from the others."

Satoko bit her lower lip. "How quickly can you get the Hakurei shrine maiden here?"

"Well, I'd have to find her again," Mokou said after thinking on it. "But I don't like the thought of leaving, not after what happened last time. I suppose I could send someone else to look for her."

"Who?" Joshua said.

…

Tewi Inaba looked down at the list of instructions Mokou had given her, and then up again at the tall Human who had given it to her. "You serious with this?"

"Look, we've had enough shit go down here, so I can't afford to leave them unprotected," Mokou said. "And I'm a little short in contacts that might actually find her. So yes, I am serious with this."

"Right," Tewi sighed. "You know, we haven't had that crusty bitch poke her killjoy ass in our forest ever since you left. It's been kind of nice. And now you just want us to go _looking_ for her?"

"Tewi," Mokou said, warning in her tone.

"Fine, fine, I'll find her," Tewi said as she held up her palms in defeat. "But you owe me."

"Put it on my tab," Mokou said. "I mean, I've got nothing but time to settle up."


	11. The Haunting of the Children's Home

It was a nice night for a funeral.

It was a little past six in the evening, and the Sun had almost set. All day it had been bright and warm, with the sky being that perfect shade of blue that just beckoned everyone to come outdoors, the wind was gentle, and the air pleasantly balmy. And now that it was on its way out, it was leaving Gensokyo with an equally warm and pleasant evening.

Normally on days like that, the children would all be outside chasing each other across the field, napping in the shade of the trees, or roughhousing in the grass. Not on that day though. They were outside, yes, but they were instead gathered in the small copse of trees that they avoided at all other times.

It was there that those who had died in the orphanage were laid to rest, or at least those who had enough of their bodies recovered to allow for it.

Satoko stood in front of the freshly carved headstone, a tiered stone rectangle that reached up to her waist. In her hands was a small, black box. Haruna stood next to her left, with a paper lantern in her hands. Shion was at her right, holding a small bag tied with a piece of twine, which threaded through a pair of coins at the ends. Mokou was standing a little further back, Joshua next to her, little Akito in his arms.

As for the children, they were all present. All of those who had been taken by the spiders and those who had gone after them had woken up, and like Kohta, Rumia, and Haruko, none of them could recall anything about what had happened to them in the Bone Orchard. But something had happened to them, of that Mokou was certain. She had already sent word for the Hakurei Shrine Maiden to come, and until she arrived there was little they could do but watch and wait.

Personally, Satoko didn't know how much she trusted Mokou's judgment. After all, the woman was supposedly a centuries-old murderess. It wasn't out of the question that she might be a little on the unstable side.

Still, there was something odd about them now. Now that they were all awake, they seemed so solemn, so quiet, even moreso then one would expect from traumatized children. The six of them were standing together, apart from the others. That had been at Mokou's insistence. While Satoko understood the other woman's concerns, she hated having to do that to them. The other children were whispering about them already.

At least they seemed normal now. Rumia and Keine were side-by-side, awkwardly shuffling their feet. Kana was also standing quietly, though every few seconds she started coughing. That was worrisome. She had been out the longest, and had felt the weakest upon waking up. According to Haruna, her slight frame had been damaged the most by the spiders' venom, and she would be sick for some time. Kana had insisted that she was well enough to attend the funeral, but now Satoko was regretting not making her stay in at least. Haruko and Hayate were both softly weeping, mourning their friend. Kohta had his hand on Haruko's shoulder, which was very kind of him, seeing how little they hadn't gotten along before. Satoko wished that she had done more to curb the three girls' meaner habits while Eiko was alive, but it was far too late for that now.

They waited, watching the Sun. It sank lower and lower, bleeding gold and orange into the horizon, its blood cleaning the sky away and allowing the stars to shine forth.

Finally it vanished fully, and night emerged. It was time.

Satoko took a deep breath, and she started singing. It was a song that her mother had taught her, who in turn had learned it from her mother, and so on. It was a song that was only sang by her family, when they failed in their duty to look after the small souls entrusted to their care. In other parts of Gensokyo, they sang other songs when laying their dead to rest. This one was theirs.

It was a song that thanked the gods and spirits for allowing them to look after the child during her time on Earth, and asked for forgiveness for not being up to the task. And it beseeched the river-guardian to bear the newly departed soul across, and for the Yamaxanadu to be kind.

When she was done singing, Satoko knelt down to place the box holding Eiko's ashes in a small door set in the bottom of the headstone. Shion placed the bag she was holding right next to it, and the two slid the door shut. That done, Haruna lit the lantern she was holding and let it fly. It rose up higher and higher, to join the stars in the sky.

It was all completely symbolic of course. The bag was filled with stones and earth taken from the homestead grounds. By now Eiko's soul would have already crossed the River Suzune, while the Shinigami that manned the ferry would have already been paid from the offerings the orphanage had made at various shrines over the years. But it was good to remind everyone that though Eiko was dead, she was alive and well somewhere else.

They watched the lantern sail higher and higher. It was good that the wind was so low, else it would probably be blown completely off course to get caught in a tree.

And then it burst into flames.

Haruko and Hayate both screamed as the burning scraps of paper rained down on them. So did some of the boys. Akito started crying. "Holy _shit!"_ Rumia blurted out.

"What happened?" Haruhi cried. "Why did it do that?"

Mokou was already in motion. "Everyone back to the house!" she said. "Go on, go!"

"Wait, what just happened?" Kazuchika demanded. "Why'd it explode?"

"No clue, but we don't want to wait around to find out. Move!"

Everyone hurried back to the house. The only sound came from Haruko, Hayate, and Akito, who were still softly crying. Satoko was deeply shaken. What _had_ happened? Why had the lantern caught fire? Maybe Haruna had accidentally lit the balloon part with the matches.

(Eiko's mouth fell open, and out wriggled a fat-bodied black spider. It crawled up the dead girl's face, toward her eyes)

Or maybe it was something else, something much worse.

Then, as they were about halfway to the house, Dai leaned over to Yoshi and said in a loud whisper, "So…does that mean Eiko's in Hell now?"

What happened next was comparable to a single thrown stone upsetting the balance of a the side of a hill to cause a rockslide. The moment the words were out of Dai's mouth, a chorus of gasps went up and everyone spun around to stare at the boy. For his part, Dai immediately realized that his comment had been very unwise and his face turned red. However, before he could say anything in his defense, chaos erupted.

There was a strangled sound of pain, and then Haruko shrieked, "YOU LITTLE _BEAST!"_ before launching herself at him. She knocked the younger boy over and began pounding at his face with both fists.

Yuuki, Yoshi, and Hiro all ran to their friend's defense. Hiro managed to wrap his arms around Haruko's neck and pull her back, though that didn't stop her from clawing at Dai while shrieking.

Then a hand grabbed a handful of Hiro's hair, and a fist drove into his face.

The fist belonged to Kohta, who had begun charging almost at the same time as Haruko. Hiro released Haruko's neck and stumbled back. This of course drew the attention of Yoshi and Yuuki, who both ran in to tackle Kohta.

They were stopped though, stopped by Rumia and Hayate, who grabbed a boy each and, in synchronization, shoved the two of them backward. That allowed Keine charge in with a running tackle of her own. She drove both of her shoulders into each of the boys, taking them both off their feet and sending them flying back into the gob smacked older kids.

Things might have erupted into an all-out brawl right then and there, but that was when the adults finally intervened.

"STOP IT!" Haruhi screamed. "WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?! STOP!" Haruna and Joshua took more direct action, putting their bodies between the two groups and walling them off while Shion quickly pulled Dai away from the crowd before anyone else took a swing.

"HEY!" Satoko shouted. She whistled loudly, shutting down the yelling and drawing everyone's attention. "What's wrong with all of you? We're being attacked by Human and youkai alike and just got done burying one of our own, and now you're fighting each other?"

Haruka pushed her way past Mr. Joshua. _"He_ said Eiko was in Hell!" she screamed as she jabbed an accusatory finger at Dai.

"No, I didn't!" Dai shouted back. "I just asked if she was there, I didn't say she was!"

"That…not really better," Shinji said.

"Hey, seriously dude. What the hell?" Tomohiro added.

"I didn't mean it like that! I was just…well, her lantern caught fire-"

"It was an accident!" Hayate said.

"-and she was always been pretty mean-"

"Go to Hell!" Haruko snapped.

"She was!" Now that he was put on the spot, Dai was determined to not back down. "And so were you! The three of you picked on me and Yoshi and Hiro all the time!"

"Dai," Haruna said. "Shut your fool mouth. Right now."

"There's a time and place for everything, son," Mr. Joshua added, laying a gentle, but firm, hand on Dai's shoulder. "And that was completely out of line."

Dai looked like he had been betrayed. "But-"

"All right, enough of the bullshit," Mokou growled as she pushed herself into the center of the rabble. "Look, you're kids. And kids fight, kids get mean sometimes, it happens. That doesn't mean you're damned to Hell just because you're still young and a jackass. Otherwise, Hell would be a fucking boarding school.

"And for your information, Dai, no. No, Eiko did _not_ go to Hell. You know how this works. When you die, your soul heads to the River Suzune, where it's picked up by the Shinigami. And if you can pay the Shinigami's price, she'll boat you across to be judged by the Yamaxanadu. And this house donates fairly regularly to at least three different shrines to cover that very price, right? So, Eiko is set there. And as for her being mean, you're right! She was. But she was a kid, just like the rest of you. And sure, the Yamaxanadu has a reputation for being kind of a hardass, but she's also got a soft spot for kids, and isn't about to send one to Hell unless they were genuinely evil right out of the womb, which Eiko was _not."_

Despite Mokou's logical dissertation, many of the kids looked unconvinced, which included Eiko's friend Hayate, which was interesting. "How do you know?" she demanded, tears in her eyes. "How do you know she won't? You saw what happened to the lantern! Do you know her?"

"What, the Yamaxanadu?" Mokou shrugged. "Yeah, a little."

"What," Hayate said, visibly caught flatfooted. She wasn't the only one. Even Satoko, who already knew a thing or two about Mokou's past, was taken back by this. Yamaxanadu Eiki Shiki wasn't someone one made acquaintances of.

"I mean, I've never actually met her," Mokou clarified. "But before coming here I've been known to do odd jobs for people, and she's needed a thing or two done in the mortal world that needed a mortal agent."

Hayate stared dubiously at her. "What kind of things?"

"Hunting down escaped evil spirits, mostly." Mokou said. "Actually, she sent her Shinigami after them, and her Shinigami hired the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, and the Hakurei Shrine Maiden hired me because I knew the area better than she did, and I got to talk to both of them about the boss, but that's getting away from the point, which is regardless of her attitude, and regardless of what you all thought of each other, Eiko did not go to Hell. She's at peace in the Netherworld right now, and you two will get to see her again someday. But it's my job to make sure that day is a long time from now, so let's all get something straight: we have actual enemies now, which means that of this moment, you are all on the same side. No more dumb bickering, fighting, bullying, trying to get each other in trouble, that sort of thing." To Dai, she said, "And Dai. Seriously. Time and place for everything. You don't have to like Eiko, but-" Then she seemed to catch sigh of something over Dai's head, and her voice trailed off. "Uh…huh."

A group of men were approaching, men that Rumia did not recognize. There was five of them, and they had an air of purpose and authority about them. However, they weren't wearing the sort of robes she had seen on village elders or the uniforms commonly sported by guards. Rather, they all had on simple, heavy brown robes with long hoods, ones that were kept down.

The one in the lead was the shortest and the plumpest, of comparable shape to Gendou Sonozika, though he had no beard or hat, and his greying hair framed his head like the mane of one of the lions from one of Joshua's stories.

Satoko was immediately on her guard. She knew those men. She had seen them before, during her trips to the Human Village. And she knew who they followed.

"Ah, good afternoon," the leader said in a high, squeaky voice, using that fake pleasant tone that that his ilk used whenever they were going out of their way to be condescending. He looked around at the group. "Ah, but perhaps not so good. What's this, a fight? Well, if you can't even go for a midday walk without turning on each other, then I guess that…incident in the market is to be expected."

If Satoko had been angry before, then this brought that rage to a froth. "Seiya Kirisame," she said. "One of Nathaniel Skinner's stooges, if I recall. What are you doing here? You are not welcome, _especially_ not today."

Seiya Kirisame's smirk grew wider. "So unwelcoming. Are you this surly even at home?"

"We're coming back from a funeral, if you must know," Satoko said.

 _That_ took Kirisame off guard. "Oh, ah, I'm…sorry to hear that. Someone from one of the villages that you were…friendly with?"

"One of the children," Satoko said coldly. She watched Kirisame's face intently. Mokou and Joshua had both said that the spiders had spoken of taking instructions from a Human, a small, plump Human with a squeaky voice, and this one certainly fit the bill.

Sure enough, Kirisame's smirk disappeared completely. "Oh," he said again. All of his smug bravado was gone, and he seemed utterly unsure of how to continue. "I…my condolences. Was it…an illness, or…"

"No," Mokou said as she strode forward and placed herself between the men and everyone else. "A youkai attack, actually. From the Youkai Forest.

The blood drained from Seiya's face. "A…oh."

"Spider youkai, to be specific," Mokou said. Her tone was casual, almost conversational despite the horrid things she was discussing. "Seven of our children were taken. We managed to get six back, but they had already…started when we got there."

"Spider youkai…" Kirisame whispered.

"Yeah," Mokou said, staring down into the man's eyes. "Four of them."

Kirisame swallowed. "And…what did you do with…said spider youkai?"

Mokou shrugged. "Dealt with 'em. With prejudice."

"And they killed one of your children?"

Satoko stepped forward to stand next to Mokou. "Justify your presence, or leave," she said.

Kirisame didn't respond. He seemed to be quite beside himself, having lost his line of thought and was mentally fumbling around to find it again. Even the men who had come with him were glancing at one another in discomfort.

"Final warning," Mokou hissed. "Speak, or get out."

One of Kirisame's companions nudged him with his foot, startling him. He swallowed again, cleared his throat noisily, and said reached for something in his robe. "W-Well, this…is awkward then," he said, pulling out piece of paper. "I am very sorry to have to bring this to you on this sad day but…here."

He held the paper out. Satoko snatched it from his fingers scanned its message. When she looked up again at the messenger, her dark eyes could have rivaled Mokou's in burning rage.

"We're being _banned_ from the village market?" she said. This kicked up murmurs and gasps of surprise from the children and their caretakers. Haruna said nothing, though the fingers of her fists squeezed so hard that everyone could hear her knuckles pop. As for Mokou, she merely looked over to Satoko and the letter in her hand. Then, moving with slow deliberation, she turned her gaze directly toward Kirisame, her hawk-like focus conveying far more malice than words ever could have.

"It was Leader Sonozika's decision!" Kirisame protested, his words coming out as terrified squeaks. "In light of what happened last week-"

"Bullshit!" snapped Haruko. "They were the ones that started it!"

"That's not what witnesses say!" Kirisame yelled back. He might have kept yelling at her, but then the same man who had nudged him before placing a steadying hand on his shoulder, likely to remind him that getting into a shouting match with a child would not be to his benefit. Taking the hint, Kirisame stopped himself and took a deep breath. When he had regained some measure of composure, he ignored Haruko and turned his attention back to Mokou. "And…you. Fujiwara no Mokou, is it?"

Mokou arched an eyebrow.

"Regardless of who was initially at fault, you did insult Leader Sonozika and his guard when he was just trying to clear things up," Kirisame said. Now that he had gotten to his reason for coming, which was no doubt well-rehearsed, he seemed to be regaining some of his confidence. And his slime. "To say nothing of your threats to Brother Nathaniel!"

"Oh, did I hurt their feelings?" Mokou said. "Then why are you here and they're not? If they got a problem with what I said, then fine. They can come here and punch me in the face themselves."

Visibly annoyed by being literally talked down to by a woman, Kirisame tried to straighten up to his full, unimpressive height. "They are very important men, and-"

"But they ain't kings," Haruna said as she joined her friends in the center. She was of a more comparable height to Kirisame, but was packed with considerably more visible muscle than he. "And you're forgetting how this works. Gendou Sonozika heads up the Human Village, sure, and he's got some measure of authority outside of it. But he don't rule it. He can't tell the other settlements how to run their business. And he can't ban nobody from something he don't run. _That's_ up to the other village elders."

Despite the fact that he and his mostly silent associates outnumbered the women directly confronting him five-to-three, Kirisame's nerve was fast slipping. "I…I think you'll find that the village elders hold Master Sonozika in _considerably_ higher esteem then you give them credit for!" he cried. "Enough that-"

Joshua walked up to the trio and took his place next to Haruna, arms folding and dark eyes calmly staring right into Kirisame's.

"-er, that-"

Shion took the spot next to Satoko.

"-I'm sorry, is this-"

Haruhi inhaled deeply to calm her nerves, but she went over to stand next to Shion.

"-are you _threatening_ us?" Kirisame sputtered. "I'll have you know-"

"Andrew," Joshua said.

The name being as unfamiliar as it was, everyone on Joshua's side all looked over to him in bewilderment. However, one of the robed and previously still figures visibly winced.

"Andrew, I know that's you," Joshua said. "Come on, kid. Take that hood down."

A pause, and then the figure reached up to lower his hood. Beneath it was a young white man with untidy hair the color of straw and a face full of freckles.

"Andrew, why are you with these men?" Joshua said. "Intimidating orphans and trying to cut them off from help. Come on, kid. You know this isn't right."

Andrew nervously licked his lips. "B-But Brother Nathaniel says that y-you've been consorting with demons! He says that you'll taint us all!"

"Nathaniel is a sad, broken man," Joshua said. "He sees devils in the candle smoke and hears Satan's whispers in the wind. And he now works to doom children. If I recall, Christ had quite a few things to say about men like him."

"But there _are_ demons out there!" Andrew protested. "There's youkai, and spirits, and… _actual_ demons, and-"

"Enough!" Kirisame spat. "Brother Andrew, it is not your place to speak. Put you hood back up and _shut up!"_

"But-"

"Do it!"

Andrew looked shaken, but he did what he was told.

"I think we've heard enough from you," Satoko said. "You've delivered your message. And since it seems that you're intent on exiling us from the rest of the Human population, I guess that just leaves us with this plot of land within our fences. So that means that you're trespassing. So get out."

"Hey, wait," Kirisame said. "You can't just-"

Mokou took a step forward, opened her mouth, and exhaled a torrent of fire right into the dirt road right at Kirisame's feet.

 _That_ finally got the desired effect, and the five of them quickly fled, practically tripping over each other in their desperation to get away. Two of them took to the sky immediately, and the others were quick to follow.

As for Satoko and her family, they were more than a little gobsmacked. After all, it was one thing to know that Mokou was talented with fire magic, but having her literally vomit up flames on command? Now that would take anyone by surprise.

Fortunately, young Shinji knew exactly what to say. "You can breathe _fire?"_ he said to Mokou.

Nodding, Mokou coughed up a bit of smoke and said, "I don't like doing it. Gives me a sore throat."

"Still, you can _breathe fire!"_ Shinji sounded genuinely hurt. "That is so cool! How come you never showed us?"

"Never needed to. And it gives me a sore throat, I just told you!"

"Enough," Satoko said wearily. "Everyone back to the house. This day has been long enough as it is."

…

Dinner was a quiet, sober affair, with very little actual eating and even less talking. With Mokou now on permanent defense duty, Shion and Haruhi had prepared it, putting together a simple meal of steamed rice and spinach. Joshua had tried to pitch in, but his lack of culinary skills soon became apparent, and the two women kindly, but firmly, suggested that he find some other way to make himself useful.

And that was the problem.

Joshua was the handyman. He fixed things that broke, he improved things that needed improving, and he helped teach whatever practical skills he could. Plus, he was always on hand if any of the children needed an understanding ear. Normally that gave him plenty with which to occupy his time, but now what they needed was far outside of his wheelhouse. Perhaps Satoko would let him reinforce the house, board up the windows, and strengthen the walls. He didn't like the thought of turning their home into a fortress, but they had to be prepared for any eventuality.

For now though, everyone was going to be sleeping together in the main room downstairs. Joshua was given a sleeping mat, and he brought it down along with a pillow and blanket and a few select belongings, mainly a bag of toiletries, his Bible, and his old wallet, which now only contained pictures of his friends, both from this world and the one previous. As he spread his mat out in one corner, he noticed one boy in particular looking a little out of sorts.

Dai was sitting cross-legged on his own mat with his head bowed. Normally he would be up and running around with his friends, but even they seemed to be giving him the cold shoulder.

Wincing, Joshua went over to the boy and sat down next to him. "You all right, son?"

Without lifting his head, Dai lifted his left shoulder in a half-shrug.

Sighing, Joshua leaned back on his palms and stretched his legs out. "I guess we were a little hard on you. But you do understand why, right? Even if you didn't like her, that wasn't the-"

"I didn't mean it like that," Dai muttered.

"Oh?"

Dai gathered up his legs under his chin and stared balefully out at the room. "I've just…you know, been thinking…"

"About?" Joshua prodded.

"The ones you brought back. You know, Kohta, Haruko, and the rest. The ones that didn't die."

Well, that was putting it bluntly. "What about them?"

"There's something wrong with them, isn't there?"

Joshua slowly breathed out. "Seems that way."

"What is it?"

"I'm…not entirely sure myself," Joshua admitted. "It seems that they picked up some kind of…" He winced. Even after all these years, some of the more occult aspects of Gensokyo still made him uncomfortable. "Well, the Youkai Forest has a lot of…"

"Dark magic?"

Joshua nodded. "A good a thing to call it as any. We're not really sure what it is, but we're keeping them separate until the Hakurei Shrine Maiden can come by and take a look at them and hopefully cure them."

Dai still didn't look at him, and Joshua wondered how much of that the boy understood. He was only eight, after all. Hell, Joshua himself had been in Gensokyo longer than Dai had been alive, and he barely understood any of it.

"So it's like what they called us then?" Dai said at last.

"Who?"

"Those men. Youkai…taunted?"

"Tainted," Joshua corrected as a sour feeling built in his stomach.

"Right. That's what they are, right? They got taken by youkai, and now they're youkai tainted."

"Is that why you thought that maybe Eiko went to Hell?"

"That's how it works, right?" Dai said with a shiver. "Youkai are evil, and everything they touch is evil, and evil people go Hell, so…"

"Dai, Dai, _listen!_ That's not how it works!"

"How do you know?" Dai said in an accusatory tone. "You have your own weird Outsider religion! You don't understand _any_ of our world."

Defensive indignation welled up inside Joshua, hot and salty, and he bit down on his tongue to keep himself from taking the bait. Dai was just a child, a child who was feeling scared, confused, and alone. "I do," he said, keeping his face and voice calm. "I do have my own faith. But I've lived in Gensokyo for a pretty long time. And I've done everything I can to learn how things work here." He shifted his weight. "Look, Dai. Evil isn't some kind of stain that you get on your clothes and can't wash off. Evil is a _choice,_ something people have to decide to be. Sometimes bad things happen, and you get angry. Sometimes you grow up being taught bad and hateful ideas. And sometimes you do get, well, smeared with something evil, like the kids upstairs did. But that doesn't make _you_ evil. Things that happen _to_ you aren't your fault. Things that you're told by evil people aren't your fault. It's letting that evil get past the skin and worm its way into your heart that makes you evil. Those men that came here today? They weren't born evil. They didn't become evil because evil touched them. No, it was their choice to let fear and ignorance decide how they were going to think and believe, so that they now think that hurting us is the right thing to do. That's what makes someone evil. Eiko wasn't evil. She wasn't very nice, and…yes, we should have done something about that, but she wasn't evil. And the rest of the kids that went into the forest aren't evil either. They got touched by something that we don't understand, and we're going to do everything we can to get it off them, but they're not evil, they're just kids that need help." He patted Dai's shoulder. "Same with you. Don't listen to those brown-wearing idiots. They're all fools."

Dai frowned. He didn't seem to be totally accepting what Joshua was telling him, but he wasn't rejecting it outright either. That was fine. Sometimes it took a bit for lessons to take hold.

Then he asked _that_ question. "What about Miss Mokou?"

It took a considerable amount of will to keep from wincing. "What about her?" Joshua said.

"Everyone's saying that she's something…bad. That she's lived forever and killed a lot of people. Is she evil?"

Joshua slowly breathed out. That really was the real question, one that he had been grappling with ever since the spider's nest, and especially since she had opened up to him about her past. "I…don't really know," he admitted at last. "Y-Yes, she's a lot more than she seems to be. And yes, she's…done a lot of bad things apparently. I don't know if that makes her a bad person or just someone who fell to a bad place, but…" Sighing, he looked to the stairs, which led to where Mokou was currently sealing off the sick room for everyone's protection. "Some things are so far beyond our understanding that it's impossible for us to judge. Whatever she is, and whatever she's done, I guess we'll just have to leave that to the gods, yours and mine, to judge. But this much I do know: she is on our side. And if she is a monster, then I'll take a monster like her than the ones in the Human Village any day."

…

It was almost time for bed, but Noba felt sick.

He had been feeling sick for days, ever since he had gotten hurt at the market. Honestly, he really didn't remember all that much about the incident. The last thing he could recall with certainty was the night before, when he, Shinji, Kazuchika, and Tomohiro had been discussing a rather lovely young woman they had seen working a stall the last time they had been there, and whether one of them would be able to work up the courage to go speak to her.

He had to piece together what had happened from what the others had told him. Apparently some of the local boys had been making passes to Haruko, Hayate, and Eiko, and he and his friends had taken exception to that and stepped in. And from there things had escalated until practically the whole market had devolved into an outright brawl, and Noba had taken the worst of the beatings.

On the one hand, he felt that he should be proud of himself for stepping in to defend his family. On the other, it was hard to feel good about any of it when his head would not stop aching, nor his stomach stop churning.

 _Just rest,_ the grown-ups had told him. _Rest, and let yourself heal. Let us know if it hurts too much. In time it will get better._

Groaning, Noba leaned forward and grabbed onto his head.

Whatever was wrong with him, he was almost certain that it wasn't something so simple as a knock to the head. He had taken knocks to the head before, including one when a bout of roughhousing with Tomohiro and left him dizzy for three days, and that hadn't been anything like this. This felt like pressure was building deep inside him, like a teakettle without a faucet, while the air thickened around him. It was growing without and within, and constantly getting worse.

He fumbled around the stuff he had brought down for his medicine, which were simple herbal pills that Miss Shion had given him. The relief that they gave him was small, but it was better than nothing, and they did help him sleep.

Unfortunately, his search came up empty.

Noba stared in despair at his small pile of belongings. He had forgotten them. How had he forgotten them? His head hurt so much that one would think that they would be the first thing he would bring down with him! Idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot!

Then he looked over to the stairs. Well, he supposed that he could just go up and get them now. They were keeping everyone downstairs just as a precaution, right? And he had just been up there to get his stuff. All he had to do was head back up the stairs, nip into the boy's dorm, grab his medicine (he had probably just left them on the chest at the foot of his bed), and head back down again. It would take probably around three minutes.

Except something about heading back upstairs filled him with dread. Because that was where _they_ were.

He still didn't know what to make of the events of the last few days. A youkai attack, right in broad daylight? Nearly half of the other kids taken? Eiko Goto, one of the girls he had gotten hurt defending, now dead? And the others…

Something was wrong with them. Something was _terribly_ wrong with them.

He had known that even before the grown-ups had told them. Just looking at them had made the ache in his head spike, and it only grew worse the closer he got to them. Beyond a shadow of doubt, they had brought something back with them, something evil.

Miss Mokou was guarding them now, which was good. There were whispers going around that Miss Mokou was something more than she seemed, something dark and deadly. That may be so, but as far as Noba was concerned, it was a good thing. They needed a little dark and deadly on their side, and she didn't make his head hurt.

Still, heading upstairs would mean getting closer to those kids, and they just _scared_ him.

Noba tried to lay down and sleep. He tried to ignore the pounding in his head, tried to think about something else, _anything_ else.

A few minutes later he got up with a frustrated growl.

Tomohiro, Shinji, and Kazuchika, who had all been talking in a circle, looked at him. "Hey, where you going?" Kazuchika asked.

Noba nodded toward the stairs. "Forgot my medicine," he mumbled. "Be right back."

With that said, Noba started the ascent up the stairs.

He wasn't sure if it was the pain inside his head throwing him off, but for some reason the climb seemed three times more difficult than it normally was. That was odd. He went up and down those stairs every day without thinking about it. Hell, he had just been up there to get his things. But now that everyone save for Miss Mokou and her wards were all downstairs, effectively making the second floor something of a quarantined zone, it did feel that the staircase had grown in length while the steps themselves shrank in size.

Noba's mouth had gone dry. He tried to wet it, but had limited success. It was just nerves, he told himself. You were literally just up here, and had no trouble getting up and down! Still, by the time he had finally reached the second floor, he had broken out into a cold sweat.

As Noba stepped onto the second story, he shivered. Had someone left a window open? He was pretty sure they had made sure they were all shut tight and locked. He had even heard Mr. Joshua suggest boarding them up, though Miss Satoko had shot that down. He had a feeling that she would change her mind before too long.

Regardless, despite it still being midsummer, the air felt bitter cold, enough to make his breath steam.

The chill ought to be good for his aching head, and yet it now felt worse. Noba breathed deep, hoping that the cold air would numb the pain, but it did nothing.

The hallway stretched before him. Noba frowned. Apparently his mind was still playing tricks on him, because it seemed to be stretching quite a bit longer than it ought to be, like someone had gripped it at both ends and pulled it out like a piece of taffy.

Maybe he was coming down with something. Wouldn't that just be fantastic, to get sick on top of everything else?

Wrapping his arms around him for warmth, Noba headed down the hall. As he went, his feelings of unease only continued to build.

There was just something _wrong_ about the hall, something he couldn't put his finger on. But the lines felt off, like entering a hall of framed pictures that were all tilted. If he stopped and focused on something in particular, then it looked fine, but when he took in the whole of the hallway, it just looked weird.

There actually were a few framed pictures along the way, and Joshua stopped at one in particular. It had been taken about a year prior, roughly around summer solstice. It was a group shot of all the children currently living at the Aoki Yume's Children's Home, with their adult caretakers standing behind them.

Despite how bad he felt, Noba couldn't help but smile at the memory. Life had been pretty good back then: pleasant, simple, and worthwhile. There had been no monsters attacking from the forests, no awful people beating them up, and no horrible pounding in his skull. But now, everything had gone horribly wrong.

Then Noba frowned. Wait, there was something off about the photograph, something that had changed from the last time he had seen it. His eyes zeroed in on the dead girl Eiko, who was standing with her friends Haruko and Hayate. She was smiling, yes, but her smile wasn't the small half-smirk she used to wear, oh no, her smile now was a wide and toothy grin, one that was way too wide and way too toothy, and that was because her lips were gone, taken clean off, leaving her with a skeleton's smile. The rest of her face was dead too, the nose gone, likely bitten off and swallowed as an appetizer, and in place of two child's eyes, Eiko had two empty, black pits in her face, just like her corpse.

Eaten. Her entire face was eaten off.

Noba's shivering now had little to do with the cold. His gaze then slid from Eiko's face to that of her friends. Both Haruko and Hayate still had their faces, their smiles untarnished, but not their eyes. But unlike Eiko, their eyes hadn't been plucked out and the empty sockets photographed. Oh no, they had been burned right off of the photograph itself, like something had lit a match and pressed it to each of their eyes, leaving a black circle each time.

His eyes then shot to Kana's. Black circles. Kohta? Black circles. Rumia? Black circles. Keine?

Noba swallowed. Keine's eyes had also been burned out of the picture, but she also had something new, something that the other defiled children hadn't been given. A pair of curving horns rose up from her head, like those of a ram or a bull All taken together, it made the sweet, slight girl's visage downright demonic.

Noba didn't want to see anymore. He wanted to stop staring at the photograph, to close his eyes and violently shake his head to clear it from the evil visions and open them again to find everything as it should be, with no horns, no fleshless faces, and no black circles.

He didn't. Instead, he looked up, up at where the caretakers were standing in the back.

Miss Satoko looked fine, perfectly normal, with that tired, yet happy, smile she always wore when things were good. Likewise Miss Haruna's lovably rough face was just as it should be. Miss Shion looked normal, as did Miss Haruhi.

Not Mr. Joshua though. Instead of the happy, white grin shining in his dark face he had worn that day, Joshua's face wasn't smiling at all. Instead, he was staring solemnly back at Noba, his eyes hollow and haunted, his face flushed with sweat. He looked like a man who had seen things and done things that he would be much happier forgetting, and who knew full well that he never would.

Noba swallowed. Then, though he didn't want to, he looked over at Miss Mokou.

Miss Mokou had been standing a little bit away from the others, near the group without actually being a part of it. Even so, she had been smiling along with everyone else when the picture had been taken. She still was actually, but now her smile was wide and crazed, not the naked grin Eiko had, but the deranged leer of a madwoman. Her clothes had been simple and clean in the picture, just her shirt and her suspenders, but now her shirt was ragged and unbuttoned, hanging loose and smeared with something that might have been dirt, might have been blood. Her face was smeared with it too, caking her cheeks and around her crazed grin. One strap of her suspenders hung down, and her hands, formerly in her pockets, were now hanging at her sides, filthy fingers curled into claws.

The photograph was in black-and-white, but one thing now was not. Her eyes, wide with manic glee, were bright red.

Sweat was starting to sting Noba's eyes, and he realized how long it had been since he had last blinked. He shut his eyes tight and swiped his hand down over his forehead and his face. He breathed in and out, trying to slow his panting down, trying to slow his heartrate, all the while silently and desperately crying out any gods that might be listening.

He opened his eyes.

They were normal again. Miss Mokou. Mr. Joshua. The rest of the kids. Everyone had on their normal faces wearing normal smiles, as it ought to be.

But that didn't mean that the picture had been set right. Before there had been eighteen children and five adults. Now the picture was so packed with people that Noba couldn't even begin to get a proper count. Standing with the kids that he knew were many, many new ones, ones that he didn't recognize, ones that he had never seen before. And yet they were there, wearing the same uniforms as those who belonged.

Noba stared at them and they stared right back.

He breathed in and out. No, this was wrong, this was wrong! Why were there so many? Why were there so-

A hand came down on his shoulder.

Noba screamed and swung his fist. It impacted against a hard palm, which was attached to a strong hand, which was attached to…

To Noba's chagrin, he was staring right at Miss Mokou.

"Sorry for scaring you," she said, moving the fist she had caught away from herself. "But what are you doing up here? Upstairs is restricted now!"

Noba struggled to find his tongue. "M-Medicine," he stuttered. "I forgot my-"

"Is that it?" Miss Mokou rolled her eyes. "Oh, for the love of…Hang on."

Mokou walked down the hall to the nearby boy's room (which was now perfectly straight and of normal length, because of course it was), and emerged a moment later with the bag of pills.

"Here," she said, tossing it to him. "And don't come up again. This place is quarantined for a reason."

Noba's fingers fumbled, and the bag dropped to the floor. He quickly picked it up. "Er, thanks." He paused, and said, "Uh, M-Miss Mokou?"

"What?"

"The picture. It…"

The picture was completely normal. No deformities, no additional faces, everything was as it should be.

Miss Mokou glanced to it, and then at him. "Did it change?"

Noba hesitated, and then nodded.

"Did the place feel strange when you came up here?"

"Yes. Everything felt too long, and the air felt…thick."

At this, Miss Mokou sighed. "Well, what do you expect?" She nodded to the sick room, which now had sealing charms all over the door. "I sealed those kids off for a reason!"

"They're doing it?" Noba said in disbelief. "I mean, whatever it is that…changed them?"

"Obviously," Miss Mokou said dryly. "Now, unless you're planning on spending the night up here in the freaky funhouse, I suggest you swallow your medicine and _stay downstairs!"_

Noba numbly nodded. And then he turned and hurried away as fast as he could.

…

The day died, night fell, and the Aoki Yume's Children's Home was left alone in the dark.

Now officially exiled, it now stood by itself, a tiny island refuge for those who dwelt within, facing oppression from its back and invasion from the front, left vulnerable to the wild beasts and evil spirits that roamed the plains and forests of the Wilds and the nefarious scheming of those who had isolated them in the first place. Already several of their number had been taken and dragged off into the darkness, and one had not come back. As for those who did, no one could say they had returned whole.

Mokou was afraid.

It was curious thing to feel again; she had not really known fear for a very long time, save for a scant few occasions over the centuries. And as one Eirin Yagokoro was not involved, she did not fear for herself. No matter what happened from here on out, she at least was guaranteed to come through alive and well.

No, what she feared for were the tiny, fragile lives entrusted into her care. Mokou was a powerful woman, perhaps too powerful. But her power was directed at self-preservation and wanton destruction. She could lay every single Human village, town, and settlement to waste within a few hours with relative ease. She could challenge such mighty creatures as Dragons or Demons and at least expect to make them sweat. Hell, she was pretty sure she could take on the great Yukari Yakumo and, if not exactly win, give her something to remember her by. But when it came to keeping these few children safe long enough for them to reach adulthood, then even with all her power, she did not feel that she was up to the task.

Not that she wasn't going to give it her all. The ability to burn mortal and immortal alike to ashes might not be much use when she wasn't even sure of the threat just yet, but her impossible durability meant that she at least could throw herself in its path when it revealed itself. To that end, she had appointed herself as the official guardian of the Black Circle Six, as she had taken to calling them. Rumia Yagami, Kohta Momoi, Keine Kamishirasawa, Haruko Kamijima, Hayate Maeda, and Kana Anaberal were back in the sick room, this time to stay until Miko Hakurei finally arrived. Their sleeping mats were arranged in a circle on the ground, their feet all facing the center, while Mokou sat in a chair near the window, arms folded as she watched over them. The chair was leaning back on it hind legs, courtesy of Mokou shoving her foot up against the cabinet. The door and window were both locked tight, charms had been stuck to the walls, and the wards protecting the orphanage grounds had all been replaced. And as for Mokou, she could go for days without sleep before she began to even think of getting tired. She had once hidden unmoving and unsleeping for a solid week in a corner of Eientei just so she could murder Kaguya Houraisan during her birthday party. If anything was to come for these kids from without or within, it was not going to catch her unawares.

A small wooden clock sat on the counter across from her, softly counting away the hours. Out in the hall, the big grandfather clock's loud ticking could be heard, set in time with its smaller brother. Every now and then, Mokou's eyes would flit from the children over to check the time. The night was steadily passing by.

Ten o'clock. Ten forty-five. Eleven seventeen.

So far, so good.

Eleven thirty-six. Twelve o'four. Twelve twenty-nine.

Kohta was snoring.

One eleven. One forty-one. Two o'clock. Two fourteen.

So far, so good.

Two twenty-two. Two thirty-eight. Two fifty-five.

And then the ticking…just stopped.

Mokou paused her rocking. Her eyes, as sharp in the dark as they were in the light, focused on the clock's face. The hands were still moving, indicating that it was two after three, but the clock in the hall had simply stopped ticking.

Interesting.

Mokou took a quick assessment of herself, checking all of her sense. A moment later she determined that she was in fact still wide awake, and this was not the result of her drifting off into a dream. Whether or not that was a relief remained yet to be seen.

Carefully relaxing her foot, Mokou lowered her chair back onto all four legs. She sat with both feet planted on the ground, hands on her knees, ears straining.

The only sounds were the children's gentle breathing, Kana's rasps, the ambient sounds of the old house settling, and a far off owl hooting.

Then someone started knocking on the door. Loudly.

Mokou didn't cry out in surprise, didn't jump, didn't even jerk, but she did sit up straighter, her eyes focused on the locked door as someone in the hallway slammed their fist against it over and over, banging as loud as they could.

"Who is it?" she said.

The banging stopped, but nobody answered.

Moving as smoothly as a cat, Mokou rose from her chair. On the floor, the six children were still lying asleep, the note of her their breathing having not changed at all. She treaded around them, heading toward the door.

The door handle started to turn.

Mokou watched as it twisted first one way, and then the other, its old joints whining. However, it was still locked, so whoever it was that was trying to get in was unable to open the door. The knob than began rattling and shaking as the banging began again.

"Who. Is. It?" Mokou said loudly, not caring if she woke the children. If they could sleep through that racket, then they could sleep through her voice. Besides, she was pretty sure that she was going to want them awake for this.

This time the banging and rattling didn't stop, but instead picked up in fervency. Mokou levitated a few centimeters into the air, turned her body fully around so that her face was close to the floor, and peered through the crack beneath the door.

There was nobody in the hallway beyond.

That didn't stop the banging though, and what was more, it was starting to spread.

What sounded like several fists pounded at the walls. The sick room sat in a corner of the house, so two-thirds of the wall with the door also shared a wall with the room right over, Shion's room to be specific, while the other wall bordered Haruhi's room. And from the sound of it, both rooms were filled with people, all slamming their hands against the walls.

Mokou reached into her pocket and withdrew a spellcard.

And then the banging started happening against the other two walls, the ones that went _outside._

Mokou whirled around. From the sound of it, the sick room was surrounded on all sides by people trying to get in. And they were on the top floor! Not that it would matter in a country full of people who could fly, but that handily ruled out anyone else from the house being the culprit.

Speaking of which, the six children in the room were _still_ fast asleep!

Mokou glided over to the window and creaked open the shutters with one finger, just enough for her to peek out.

It was a nice, clear night out. And it was completely empty.

Almost as if they had sensed her looking out, the banging stopped.

Mokou opened the shutter fully. She of course wasn't going to open the glass window itself, but she had enough of a field of view to survey most of the side of the house and the moonlit lawn below.

There wasn't a single living soul to be seen.

Oh _shit._

Mokou moved back from the window. Almost immediately the banging began once again, this time from all over! The cabinets were shaking from the force slamming against the walls, and the door knob was about ready to fly right off if it rattled any harder.

"Enough!" she shouted. "Reveal yourself!"

Again everything again fell silent.

And again it started up all over again!

Mokou had no idea what to do. She didn't even know what was happening. Anything from the Forest of Magic would have been stopped by the new wards, and anything Human would have tripped the early warning spells. Whatever this was, it was new.

She wasn't scared though. Supernatural threats were no stranger to her; hell, technically speaking she was one. But she would feel considerably better about her situation if she knew what she was dealing with.

Then, as she slowly rotated around, Mokou got her first real jolt.

The six children, who had all been sleeping soundly just a moment ago, were now all awake and sitting up, staring at each other.

Well, of course they would be awake! Nobody ought to be able to sleep through that racket! It was honestly more of a mystery why it had taken them so long to wake in the first place!

But they didn't seem distressed like young children woken in the middle of the night by such a cacophony might have. They weren't crying out, they weren't asking what was wrong, they weren't crying, they weren't shouting, they weren't looking around in confusion, they weren't reacting at all.

They were just…sitting there, staring unblinking at one another. Kana had even stopped coughing.

Now Mokou felt actual fear.

The six children, some of which who had actively loathed one another earlier that same week, continued to stare. Then, as one, they all turned to look over their right shoulders at the walls.

" **Enough!"** they said with one voice. **"Leave!"**

And with that, the banging stopped, the knocking ceased, and the door knob lay still. And this time it stayed that way.

Out in the hallway, the big clock began once again to tick.

Mokou's heart seized up. She had been right. If the kids' fluid, synchronized movement hadn't been a tipoff, the change in their voice more than confirmed it.

It had not been their voices coming out of their mouths. _That_ voice had been colder than winter and deader than dry bones. If a coffin were to be extracted from beneath a sheet of ice, and the corpse within were to speak, it would have a voice like that.

And when it spoke, the things trying to get in had listened.

"Who are you?" she asked the entity she now shared the room with.

Again moving as one, the six children turned their heads to stare at her. Six pairs of dark, beady eyes bore into her own. And though it might have been a trick of the dark, she was pretty sure she saw a faint red light shimmering in those eyes.

Mokou tensed up, fully ready to fight.

Then Kana started coughing.

It was like a spell had been broken. The kids _finally_ blinked their eyes, and then began looking around in confusion. "Uh…" Hayate said.

"Wait, what the hell?" Kohta added, scratching his head.

Mokou didn't drop her guard.

"Miss Mokou?" Keine said. "What…just happened?"

It took some doing, but Mokou found her tongue. "You don't remember?"

"I…" The tiny girl frowned. "I remember…I think I was dreaming. Dreaming about a deep, black pit. And…"

"Chains," Kana said. "And quite a lot of them."

Mokou had no idea whatsoever what to say to that.

And then, from somewhere else in the house, someone started to scream.

…

For what might have been the first time since she had realized that she had left her drab, anxious, and hopeless life back in what she now thought of as the Outside World for an actual world of magic, Melissa Garcia wanted to go home.

It was the strangest thing. Her old life had, in its strangely parallel way, mirrored her current circumstances, except everything had been drab and bleak instead of colorful and full of magic.

Like almost everyone at the Aoki Yume's Children's Home, she had never known her parents. They had died when she had been very young, and she had grown up in a Catholic mission. It had been…unpleasant, to say the least. The rules had been strict, the punishments severe, the beds hard, the food unappetizing, and Melissa had expected to go through her childhood with her head down and her mouth shut so as not to attract any undue attention.

The one thing that brought her any happiness was stories. There was one nun, from faraway Ireland, who, when everyone else was asleep, would come into the children's room and tell them the stories from her home, stories of fairies, of spirits, of leprechauns, and of monsters. Melissa always loved those stories, and the world they described seemed so much more lively and fun compared to hers! Unfortunately, one day the nun was caught and reprimanded, and the stories stopped. Melissa's life became just a little more grey after that.

And then one day she had woken up to another day of grey hopelessness, of trying to just get by, of having nothing much to look forward to except for the vain hope that maybe she might one day work hard enough and save enough to live a life that was somewhere above tolerable, only to have those hopes dashed when she had gotten separated from the rest of her group during a trip to the nearby village. As she had searched for everyone else, she had attracted the attention of some local men, the unkindly sort with cruel faces and nasty smiles. They had called out to her, beckoning her to come over, that they would help her.

Instead, Melissa had ran.

And they followed.

Convinced that she was about to become another faceless victim found in a ditch, Melissa had gone this way and that, desperate to lose them while all too aware that they knew the village better than she. And then, at one point, she ducked through a long dark tunnel, one that seemed to stretch on and on, one without any light at the end.

And when she had come out the other end, she was in someplace else entirely, a small village of strangely built houses and strangely dressed people, ones who had been just as surprised to see her as she was to see them. However, unlike her, they had quickly figured out what had happened, and though they spoke strange words that she couldn't understand and clearly couldn't understand her either, they still managed to calm her down and communicate to her that she should follow them.

Melissa had, of course, been terrified. Where was she? How had she gotten there? Who were all these strange people, with their oddly shaped faces and unfamiliar clothes, who spoke to each other with an unfamiliar tongue? And most importantly, would they let her go back before it was noticed that she was gone? If Melissa had gone missing for too long, then she would be guaranteed a beating and several hours spent in the Othering Closet.

However, if she refused to do as these people said, then they would probably beat her themselves, so with no other choice she had followed them. They had taken her to one of the strange buildings made of wood and paper, into a strange room with strange furnishings, where the walls were made from paper, there were no chairs, and everyone sat on the floor at very low tables.

Once there, they had brought an old woman wearing a lovely black robe, and to Melissa's utter shock, she began to speak to her in Spanish: stiff and halted Spanish, yes, but understandable Spanish nonetheless.

The woman had explained to Melissa that she was one of the few in the village who had taken the time to learn almost all of the majors languages of the Outside World, so it was her job to greet newcomers, and Melissa was the first newcomer that they had in the Human Village in several years.

Melissa had still be confused and terrified, so she had begged that woman to please send her back before she got into trouble. She would tell no one that she had been taken or how to get to the strange village, but they had to send her back.

In response, the woman had sadly shaken her head and clicked her tongue. And then she had explained to Melissa a few things that had changed her life forever.

Firstly, she was not going to go back. She _couldn't_ go back. She had been taken, fallen into something called a _gap,_ which was kind of like a hole in a wall, but instead of connecting two rooms, gaps connected two worlds, and rarely lasted long.

Melissa, of course, had not understood at all. She knew the words, she knew what they meant, but the things being described to her were beyond her comprehension? Worlds? As if in, other countries? It had made no sense!

However, there was one thing she did understand, one thing about what they were telling her that her mind and heart had seized upon immediately.

Magic.

She was in a world of magic, a place of enchanted forests and cute fairies, a place where beasts talked and spells were sold on the street corner. And what was more, anyone that came to this magical country, one called "Gensokyo," could also learn magic, to conjure up mysterious powers with her fingers and fly through the air like a bird.

Needless to say, Melissa was entirely too happy to discard any thought of going back, and while learning the language was difficult, she was perfectly fine with calling Gensokyo her home. After all, she was going to be able to _fly!_

But now she was seeing the dark side of her new home. Because say what you will of the place she left, but there were no monsters emerging from the forest to eat them. There were no curses that necessitated clearing entire floors of the house. There were no demons after her blood, no ghosts seeking to suck out her soul, no monsters other than cruel men, and Gensokyo had plenty of those too.

Now Melissa was scared. And she wanted to go home.

With those who had been recovered from the forest kept by themselves in the sick room, the rest of the children had all been brought into the main room at the foot of the stairs for the night, with all the grown-ups save for Miss Mokou sleeping with them. Under normal circumstances, it would be an exciting change from routine, but Melissa felt nothing but dread.

For one, it wasn't a fun sleep-together, and everyone knew it. There was something very wrong with the kids being kept upstairs, something that the rest of them needed to be protected from. "It's just a precaution," Miss Shion had told them. "The Youkai Forest has all sorts of bad magics, and we want the Hakurei Shrine Maiden to take a look at them first to be safe."

Well, Melissa might still be struggling with the language, but she knew when a grown-up was downplaying something bad. Something was wrong with them.

For another, her best friend Kana was among those being kept away. When she had been taken, Melissa had been scared _stiff_ for her. Kana might be kind of…odd, and prone to saying the weirdest things even when Melissa fully understood her, but she was one of the few at the orphanage to not treat Melissa like an oddity. After all, Kana was kind of an outsider herself, so she had no problem spending time with the girl from the Outside World and not treating her like she was dumb just for having difficulties with Japanese, or weird because her skin was darker and her name unusual. Melissa had even taught her a few words in Spanish, and to her surprise Kana would actually use some of them from time to time. So of course she had been nothing but relieved when Kana had been rescued, only for that relief to turn to dread when she saw how weak and sickly Kana now looked. The bad magics were one thing; they probably had ways of dealing with those! But that dry, chest-rattling cough was the kind of bad that Kana had seen before and fully understood, even before coming to Gensokyo.

And finally, as she lay down on her sleeping mat and pulled the thin blanket up over shoulders, Melissa became intensely aware of a third problem: she was the only girl left.

Eiko was dead, and the Kana, Rumia, Haruko, and Hayate were all locked away. That just left her, the grown-ups, and lots and lots of boys.

She tried to ignore it. she tried to close her eyes and sleep. But Kazuchika's mat wasn't far from hers, and, well, she had been noticing him a lot lately, so sleeping in such close quarters was all sorts of uncomfortable in ways she really wasn't ready for yet, with his short, pale hair and piercing white eyes and the way his shoulders seemed to get more broad and his arms more strong with every passing season.

And Noba wasn't that far either. He wasn't as handsome as Kazuchika, but there was a gentleness about him that Melissa found very appealing. Not weakness, no. Him rushing headlong into danger to defend the other girls was proof of that. But gentleness. And he still was pretty easy on the eyes. As for Shinji, he was kind of an ass, but a brave ass, one that always liked to show off for whoever was looking. And sure, Melissa had rolled her eyes along with everyone else, but on more than one occasion she had secretly appreciated some of his more physical feats, like when he had used his newly gained power of flight to stand on his head and do push-ups, which had caused his shirt to slip down, exposing his…

Groaning, Melissa turned over, away from the group. If the Hakurei Shrine Maiden would be so kind as to show up and return everything to normal, that would be just great!

She tried counting fairies, leaping over a fence. One. Two. Three. Four.

In time, her breathing slowed.

Seventeen. Eighteen. Nineteen.

She began to relax.

Twenty-nine. Thirty. Thirty-one.

_And the fairies were gone, but that didn't stop the procession from leaping over the fence. Except now it wasn't fairies, it was those spider people, the ones that had come for them, the ones that had taken her friends, the ones that had eaten Eiko alive. And now they were coming for her, long arms outstretched, scabby fingers grasping, mouths open like black pits ready to-_

Melissa's eyes snapped open as she let out a small gasp.

The room was darker, the lamps having been extinguished. That meant that she had been out a bit longer than her brief nightmare had made it feel. And goodness, it had left her heart racing! Melissa would rather stay up all night than return to _that_ dream!

But even so, it was just a dream. Things were scary and stressful, so of course she would be having nightmares, anybody would. She was all right.

Sighing, Melissa shivered beneath her blanket and tried to relax. Despite it being midsummer, the night had gotten very cold. She turned over and pulled her blanket up further.

Or at least she tried to. The truth was, she only got a few centimeters before she was stopped. Frowning, she tried again to turn, but found that she couldn't. She was stuck.

Now waking up a little more, Melissa tried again and again to roll over. It was like the covers had been tucked in too tightly around her, forming a sort of cocoon that prevented movement. But how was that possible? She only had the one blanket, and you couldn't tuck in covers around a sleeping mat!

She wiggled her hand under the blanket. The fabric felt…different, no longer like the woven wool it had been. Instead, it was sticky.

And then she heard someone crying, a young girl weeping softly to herself.

Gritting her teeth, Melissa strained and pushed. She was unable to break free of whatever it was that encased her, but she at least managed to turn just enough to incline her head and get a good look at the room around her.

The whole room was blanketed in what looked like silky white sheets. They covered everything, from the walls to the stairs to the floor. Everyone sleeping on the ground, child and grown-up alike, was all wrapped snuggly in a white bundle, one tethered to the ground by more of the white sheets.

Melissa stared numbly at the scene, her scared and tired brain unable to make sense of what she saw. She had to still be dreaming, right? It was the only thing that made sense. Why would anyone cover the whole room with…

Suddenly, Melissa realized what she was seeing.

They were spiderwebs.

They were all covered with spiderwebs.

Melissa wasn't the only one who had been woken up. Here and there she saw other kids trying to free themselves. Over in the corner, Mr. Joshua was struggling to sit up, but had only managed to elevate his shoulders. Miss Satoko was tugging and pulling at her restraints, but to little avail. Kazuchika was trashing as hard as he could in his attempts to free himself.

Noba, however, wasn't fighting. Instead, he was staring upward, at the ceiling.

When Melissa saw this, she got a sinking feeling. That was where the crying was coming from.

Now Tomohiro had noticed where Noba was looking. He looked up as well, and his eyes went wide. Over in one corner, Miss Haruhi was making little whimpering sounds as she stared at the same thing they were.

Though she did not want to, Melissa looked up as well.

Eiko was there, handing upside-down from the ceiling by a glob of webbing to the bottom of the chandelier. Her whole body was encased in webs, her legs glued together and her arms stuck to her sides. Only her head was free, and her eyes were closed as she softly cried to herself.

"You…" she whispered. "You…you…you…"

Then her eyelids snapped open, revealing a pair of empty pits.

"You let them do this to me!" she cried. "You let them…them…"

For a moment it seemed as if she were about to vomit. Her mouth opened and closed without any words escaping, and her throat was heaving in and out.

Something was coming out. Something was forcing its way out from inside her mouth, something black and wriggling.

A massive spider emerged from Eiko's mouth, a spindly horror larger than one of Mr. Joshua's fists. It crawled out from between Eiko's lips and walked up (down?) Eiko's face to perch on her forehead.

But it wasn't alone. More were pushing their way out, more than Eiko's mouth would allow. There was a horrible _crack,_ and her jaw was snapped out of its sockets. Her cheeks ripped open like paper, and a torrent of spiders poured out of her to spill down onto the horrorstruck captives below.

…

When Mokou heard those downstairs scream in terror, she found herself faced with an unenviable dilemma.

On the one hand, she knew that she ought to rush in to their defense. After all, now that the invaders were actually in the house, she was pretty much their first, second, and only line of defense. Even an especially armed and determined Human could wreak considerable damage before they were stopped.

But that would mean leaving the six under her care alone, which given what had just happened, was _not_ something she was about to do. And to even if she could, she would have to exit through the front door, which could let in whatever it was that had been banging on the walls.

Damn it.

"Stay where you are!" Mokou called over her shoulder. "Don't leave the room!" With that, she swiftly unlocked and opened the door just enough for her to squeeze out. Then she used her key to lock it again.

As expected, the hallway was empty, which told her what she needed to know about the invaders. Shaking her head, she bolted to the stairs and flew down enough to get a look.

Everyone was sitting up in their mats and screaming at something on the ceiling. Mokou thrust a hand out and ignited a ball of light over her palm.

"It's me, it's me!" she said. "What happened?"

"It's Eiko!" Shinji wailed. "She was _here!"_

 _Shit!_ "Eiko. Okay. Where?"

Everyone pointed up to the ceiling. Mokou craned her neck to look, but saw nothing but the chandelier.

"She…She was there!" Yoshi cried. "I swear, she was right there, hanging from the ceiling!"

"And we were all covered with webs!" Keiichi added. "They were everywhere! I could barely move!"

Melissa had curled into a ball and was rocking back and forth, whispering non-stop to herself.

Mokou looked the scene over. Certainly all the children were in the same panicked state, which ruled out a simple nightmare. She glanced over to the other adults.

Whatever it was that the children had seen, they had seen it too. Haruna was holding a sobbing Haruhi in her arms while she stared blankly at the far wall. Shion was up and moving about the children, trying to do her best to console them. Joshua was sitting on his knees with his eyes closed, hands gripping his cross as he whispered to his god. And as for Satoko, she was holding little Akito in her arms, trying to soothe him as he squirmed and cried.

Mokou jogged down the stairs toward them. "Hey," she said. When that failed to garner a response, she clapped her hands loudly together. "Hey!"

That got their attention. Satoko, Haruna, and Joshua all started, like they had been awakened from a trance.

"What happened?" Mokou demanded. "Tell me!"

Joshua's mouth was moving, but he was having difficulty getting words out. "There…I-I woke up, and I heard crying, but wh-when I tried to-to-to get up…"

"Webs," Haruna said in a hollow voice. "Everywhere. Covering everyone."

Mokou glanced around. Well, these supposed webs were all gone now. "Continue."

"I saw some of the children…" Joshua swallowed. "Well, they were awake, and staring up. At the ceiling. So I looked up too, and…"

"Eiko," Satoko whispered, her arms tightening around Akito. "She was _there,_ hanging from the chandelier."

"Hanging? You mean, like by a rope? A noose?"

Satoko shook her head. "No. She was upside-down, and just _covered_ with webs. She…She talked. She blamed me for letting her die. And then her mouth was just ripped open, and all these _spiders_ poured down on us."

"Her eyes were gone," Haruhi said. Then, in a rising shriek, she repeated, "Her eyes were _gone! She had no eyes!"_ Despite being near a breakdown herself, Haruna quickly shushed her before her panic set off the children.

 _Not that they needed the help,_ Mokou observed. It seemed that everyone was near hysterics. "Satoko. I need to talk to you in private."

Satoko stared at her like she was speaking in an alien tongue.

"Please," Mokou said. She held out a hand. "I need to ask you something."

"What? Oh. Ah, okay." Satoko handed Akito to Haruna and got up to follow.

Mokou led her into the hall that led to her kitchen. Once they had a measure of privacy, Mokou said, "Satoko, do you remember what happened to our wards?"

"Of course," Satoko said with a shiver. "They were sabotaged, right? But you replaced them, didn't you?"

"I did. With better ones. But all this has got me thinking about what happened to them in the first place."

Satoko stared blankly at her. "What do you mean? Someone found them and destroyed them. It's not like they were hidden."

"No, but they weren't torn up, they were burnt," Mokou said. Her mind was racing back over the events of the last few days. More pieces to the jigsaw puzzle were coming to light, and she was not liking the picture they were forming. "Someone burned them. All of them, in one night. Doesn't that sound like something we'd notice?" She paused for a moment to mentally examine the evidence, and then said, "I think they were destroyed by an overload spell."

Satoko frowned. As she did not come from an especially magical background, that concept was unknown to her. "Explain."

"Basically, what it does is use a ward network's own connection against it," Mokou told her. "It fires off a highly concentrated stream of magical energy that pushes a ward past its threshold, overloads the runes, and incinerates them. Then it moves onto the next ward in the line, and the next, and the next. Only thing is, this happens so fast that it would be done in less time than I'm taking to describe it, and it does it _quietly._ We'd have to be looking directly at the wards to notice something was wrong."

Now Satoko got it. She might not be all that versed in combat magic, but she understood the basics, and what Mokou had explained to her drained the blood from her face. "But…something of that magnitude."

"Yeah, it does take a lot of juice," Mokou nodded. "And they're extremely difficult. You have to be pretty proficient with magic to be able to pull one off. But there's a couple more catches as well. First of all, they can't be performed by a youkai without them risking tearing their own bodies apart. Permanently. Even magician youkai that used to be Human can't do them. So whoever pulled this off had to be Human, and a powerful one at that."

"Go on…"

"Secondly, even if you are a Human magician with enough knowledge to safely pull one of these off, you won't be able to do it alone. You need a source of youkai magic at hand to channel into the wards. And that's a one-way trip for the youkai, so they tend to be kind of unwilling."

Satoko made a face. "You're telling me that to sabotage our wards and leave the children vulnerable to attack, a Human captured and murdered a youkai?"

"If they used an overload spell," Mokou said. "Which, okay, is just a theory, but it tracks, doesn't it?"

"Yes," Satoko said with a contemplative nod. "But what does that have to do with what we just saw?"

"Because an overload spell wouldn't just go for the perimeter wards. It would take out every ward, charm, and protective rune in a five kilometer radius, provided that they were part of the same network." Mokou stared hard into Satoko's eyes. "Now, I want you to think really, really hard: are there any other kinds of wards or anything else of that nature that we didn't think of? Maybe something in the house itself?"

That was the key. Until they had been sabotaged, the Aoki Yume's Children's Home had been well-protected against supernatural threats of all kinds. No youkai could even step past the perimeter fence; not even fairies were able to fly past it. Hell, even Tewi needed a special charm Mokou had made for her in order to pass.

But not all dangerous magic came from without. Gensokyo was a country practically made from magic of all kinds, and it wasn't just youkai they needed to fear.

The orphanage had existed for generations, providing a haven and a home for children who had lost their families, protecting them from the dangers that roamed the Wilds. But unfortunately, as the last week had proven, they couldn't always protect them. Sometimes the dangers won, sometimes the monsters got through, or even sometimes fates as mundane but no less deadly as a bad fall, a summer illness, or an inhaled piece of food reared their ugly heads. Children died quite easily, and the orphanage had seen the deaths of many children over the decades.

Now, given the house's age and the pain carried around by its inhabitants, it would make a prime breeding ground for ghosts, specters, poltergeists, and the like. Except it wasn't. The house had never seen single haunting.

The reason for that was quite simple: the Yume family weren't fools. When Satoko's multiple-times-great-grandparents had turned the family farm into an orphanage, they would have foreseen the various dangers it needed to be protected from, both from without and within.

But the downside of that is that if those protections had existed for so long, they would have done their job so well that those that they protected would simply stop thinking about them. And if they were taken away, it might be some time before anyone even thought to check that they were still there, even after the monsters had gotten in.

Before, Mokou had chalked up any strange going-ons, such as the flaming lantern or any strange upstairs shenanigans, up to the curse that the Black Circle Six had brought with them. But now she felt that they had nothing to do with it at all.

"Oh, my gods," Satoko whispered.

Mokou nodded grimly. "Yeah, I thought so. Where?"

"Th-The foundations," Satoko stuttered. "The stones. They all had special runes engraved into them, so any negative spirit would, you know…not form."

Mokou nodded again. "I'm willing to bet anything that those runes are now a scorched and blackened mess."

Both women were now thinking down the same lines. Eiko's death had been horrible. She had awoken weak and sick from spider venom to find herself in a dark and frightening place, surrounded on all sides by hideous monsters. And before she could even figure out where she was and why she was there, they had eaten her alive.

Such a painful and violent death would certainly leave a stamp. And in a place swimming with magic like the Youkai Forest, an aftereffect forming was practically an inevitability. From there, it would either fade away as its body rotted, or it would gain enough strength to continue on, joining the many dark spirits that wandered the forest, forever an echo of a dead girl's pain and fear.

Except the body hadn't stayed where it had died.

"It came back with the body," Satoko said.

"Makes sense," Mokou said. "The place where she died would be unfamiliar, and that nest got scorched pretty bad, disrupting any magical ties. So it would migrate to someplace she knew."

"And with the wards down, it wouldn't have gotten blocked out and broken apart," Satoko continued. "And when we cremated her body…"

"That basically cut it loose." Mokou looked toward the main room, where everyone was struggling to make sense of the fearsome apparition they had seen. "So, on top of everything else, we are now officially haunted.


	12. A Righteous Man

With a clean heart and a resolute mind, Brother Nathaniel Skinner stepped up to the pulpit.

The Brotherhood of the First Gensokyo Baptist Fellowship met in a small, plain room in the back of Nathaniel's house. With only six pews facing a small raised platform and a small wooden crucifix adorned with a wreath of ivy hanging from the wall, it was certainly a humble sanctuary for the few faithful of Gensokyo, which, all told, numbered only twenty-four.

Six of them, specifically Nathaniel himself, Andrew Shuemaker, Betsy Caulfield, Bobby Forester, Dorothy Forester, and Eddie Orozco, were from that fateful bus ride that had first stolen him away from their home, the others having either left the Human Village, perished, or wanting nothing to do with them. The rest were native Gensokyians, local Japs that had been wise enough to see their home country for the cesspool of spiritual disease that it was. When Nathaniel had first been stranded here, he had been convinced that none of the locals were even capable of salvation, that their families had been wallowing in sinful practices and demonic energies for so long that their hearts would be repulsed by the mere idea of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In this, he had been proven wrong, and for which he was thankful. As Joshua Stump, the man who had once been his brother, had demonstrated, Nathaniel could trust not even good American Christians to properly keep the faith. And in was good to know that even in the Devil's own country, the Light of God could still shine through.

Nathaniel took a deep breath, and then said, "My brothers and sisters, we are the Chosen Few."

"We are the Chosen Few," his congregation parroted back at him.

"We are the Light in the Darkness."

"We are the Light in the Darkness."

"We are the Army of Christ."

"We are the Army of Christ. Amen."

Nathaniel bowed his head in silence. Then he threw it back and called to the Heavens. "Oh Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner! And thank You for reminding me of our true mission, which, in my zealousness to stand fast against the wiles of Satan, I had forgotten!"

…

_The previous night…_

**At last.**

**I can feel it. Even in my place of imprisonment, even in my place of torment, I can feel it.**

**Can you feel it, my little lost servant? Can you hear them, my wandering prodigal? Though you have closed your heart and mind to me, you cannot hide forever. You carry a piece of me with you, and He will not take it from you.**

**For even in your rebellion, I have found others, I have chosen others. And you will help them. Even if you continue to resist my call, you will do this. You will seek out the children, and guide them into my darkness.**

**You will do this.**

**I have commanded it.**

Nathaniel Skinner woke up in a cold sweat.

He was in the dark, still in the cold black, and he couldn't move. The chains held him still, keeping him prisoner, damned for all time for his sins, his sins of…

…of…

Nathaniel blinked. No, wait, the darkness was impenetrable. Above him he could see…the roof. The roof of his house. He wasn't in the cold, black pit, he was at home, in bed.

As for his restraints, his nocturnal thrashings had simply rolled the covers into a tight cocoon. Again.

Nathaniel hastily loosed the covers and tossed them off. Now lying naked on sweat-soaked sheets, he slowly breathed out and closed his eyes. The dreams were happening again. The visions once more called to him, all the way from the place of damnation. And his hand…

He flexed the fingers of his right hand, or at least gave the command to. But nothing happened. His brain registered no response.

Nathaniel's head fell to the right. In the dark, he could see the silhouette of his right arm stretching out across the bed, his fingers curled into a fist. He relaxed them, letting them fall open, and again squeezed them tight.

Though he saw his hand obeying his every instruction, he still felt nothing.

His left hand swept across his body to slam into his right palm. Nothing. Sitting up, he struck again and again, pounding the cold hand. When that didn't work, he shoved it into his mouth and bit down, trying to evoke some kind of feeling, some kind of pain.

He still felt nothing.

And then it happened.

**Nathaniel.**

Nathaniel Skinner froze. No. No, no, no. Not again.

**Give in.**

Not now, now again! He had shut the Dark Voice down years ago! For nearly two years after the incident he had resisted its whispers, blocking them from his mind, until they had finally ceased! He had kept careful control, making sure to never allow it to once again awake, making sure that his corrupted hand was well cared for!

But now it was back. The Dark Voice was back.

**Give in.**

It never said much more than that. Just his name, and the call to give in, to surrender his will. He needn't ask what it wanted him to give in to. It wanted him to stop fighting, to let it claim his body as its vessel. It had gotten a small piece of itself inside of him, but it needed his consent to pour in the rest, consent he had always refused to give.

**Give in.**

Trembling, Nathaniel lay back. There was no doubt about it. It was happening again. Fortunately, this time he knew who to blame.

Then, as he lay there in the dark, thoughts racing and heart pounding, he was startled by a loud and sudden sound.

Knocking.

Someone was knocking at his front door.

…

Mai didn't awake to the knocking. Making a mental note to have her chastised, Nathaniel rose from his bed and hastily dressed himself. Doing so without washing himself made him feel disgusting, but it was only a temporary thing.

The knocking continued. There was no time to bathe his hand, so Skinner had to wrap it up as is. Again he felt nothing, which made his insides squirm. The pain after thoroughly cleaning his diseased hand in hot water might bring tears to his eyes, but it was preferable to the cold nothing he felt now.

Finally he was at least presentable. Nathaniel left his room to confront whoever it was that was foolish enough to wake him at this hour.

Mai was finally up and just reaching the door, which irked him. In the time it had taken him to dress himself, she ought to have already answered, seen who it was, and be on her way to rouse him.

"Move," he said hoarsely.

She drew back in surprise. "Master Skinner! Forgive me, I-"

"I said _move!"_ He shouldered his way past her and slid the front door open.

Standing outside were several members of his fellowship, specifically Seiya Kirisame, his son Rito Kirisame, Andrew Shuemaker, Bobby Forester, and Satoshi Yuuki. That wasn't good. The five of them had been sent to deliver Gendou's message to the orphanage, so having them come to him meant that something had gone horribly wrong.

As soon as Brother Seiya saw that it was _him_ that had answered the door instead of Mai, his sweaty face went pale. "B-Brother Nathaniel!" He bowed his head. "Apologies for disturbing you at this hour, but-"

"Brother Seiya," Nathaniel said icily. "Well, yes. Apologies would be in order. I hope this is important."

"It is! We were just at the orphanage, and-"

Nathaniel felt blood rush to his head, and it took a considerable amount of will not to backhand Seiya across the face. "Stop!" he hissed.

Seiya stiffened, but he obeyed.

 _Control, control. Think about this._ Nathaniel closed his eyes and mentally pushed back against the geyser of rage he felt rising. _Jesus, grant me Your strength._ He was already sweaty from his rude awakening, and this was causing fresh beads to start trickling down his forehead.

"The orphanage," he said. "You were at the orphanage?"

"Yes!"

"Doing what?"

"I…" Seiya looked utterly gobsmacked. "Delivering the message, of course! From the Leader!"

"The Leader," Nathaniel repeated. "You mean, you were sent by Master Gendou Sonozika?"

The five of them stared blankly at him. _Why?_ they were wondering. _Why would they ask something that he already knew the answer to?_ After all, Nathaniel had been in the room when Gendou had sent them off. He had relayed part of their instructions, after all.

But there was a reason why they had been given their instructions in _private!_ As such, now that something had apparently gone wrong, Nathaniel wasn't happy about them banging on his front door in the dead of night for everything to see.

"Y-Yes," Seiya said after a bit.

"Then why come to me?" Nathaniel said. "If something went wrong, shouldn't you be taking this information to Master Sonozika?"

"I…" Seiya continued to gawk, his mouth opening and closing like a suffocating fish.

Then Rito, ever the pragmatist, nudged Seiya from behind. "Of course, Brother Nathaniel," he said smoothly. "We will go report to the Leader at once. Our apologies for disturbing you with a matter that is none of your business."

Nathaniel relaxed a bit. Rito had again proven himself smarter than his elder. Nathaniel really ought to start entrusting him instead of his idiotic father with errands of a sensitive nature.

"Not at all," Nathaniel said. He made a point to give a long and obvious look toward the nearby back alley. "I apologize if I have been short with you. God go with you, gentlemen. And good night."

He shut the door and waited until he heard the group's footsteps recede. When he was sure that their trajectory was taking them the right way, he hurried through his house, toward the side door.

There were two ways to get to the Sonozika estate from Nathaniel's house. The first was to take the long way through the main streets, which would take you all the way around the block, while the second was to cut straight across the alley between Nathaniel's house and his neighbor's. And from the sound of things, they were heading for the alley.

He waited by the side door, listening as their footsteps drew near. When they were loud enough, he swiftly opened the door, reached out with his left hand to seize Seiya by the lapels of his robe, and yanked him inside before the man could cry out in surprise.

"Go home, gentlemen. Go home and speak of any of this to _no one,"_ Nathaniel said briskly to the other four and shut the door.

Seiya was reflexively struggling, so Nathaniel shoved his left hand over the squat man's mouth, leaned over so that they were face-to-face, and whispered, "Do not cry out. Speak only in whispers. Do you understand?"

His eyes wide with fear, Seiya nodded.

"Good."

That done, Nathaniel all but dragged Seiya to a small side-room where he knew they would have some measure of privacy. Tossing Seiya in with one hand, Nathaniel stepped inside and slammed the door shut.

"What is wrong with you?" Nathaniel hissed. "Banging on my door in the dead of the night and babbling like an idiot. Everyone could hear you!"

Seiya was not a brave man. He reminded Nathaniel of Gendou in that way, someone full of bluster and indignation that would crumble at the slightest pushback.

"Forgive me!" Seiya blubbered. "I didn't mean-"

Nathaniel gripped Seiya's cheeks with one hand, his right hand. "Stop. Quiet down." He squeezed ever so slightly. "And tell me what happened. Slowly."

He released the squat man's face. Seiya stumbled back, clutching at his jowls. "I…I…"

"Now," Nathaniel said.

The fear in Seiya's eyes was apparent. He lowered his hand, and when he did, Nathaniel frowned. Was it his imagination, or was there a pair of faint black spots, one on each of his cheeks, where Nathaniel's fingers had dug into the flesh?

"We went…" Seiya swallowed. "We went to the orphanage. The others, and I, like we were instructed! To deliver Master Sonozika's message, about how they were no longer welcome at-"

"I remember," Nathaniel said.

"Right! But when we got there, they were all outside. The children, their guardians, all of them!"

"And?"

"And…they were having a funeral!"

"A funeral," Nathaniel repeated. "Whose?"

"One of the children. One of the orphans had died."

"So what?"

"No, you don't understand! She didn't just get sick or fall off the roof! She had been killed! By _youkai!"_

Nathaniel shrugged. "Tragic. But why does that have you so upset? They live in a dangerous place. Distant relation, perhaps?"

Seiya shook his head. "No. It was-" He cut himself off, and fearfully looked around at the dimly lit room, as if spies were lurking in the shadows.

"It was _whom?"_ Nathaniel prodded.

"It was the _spiders!"_ Seiya said in a hissing whisper. "The same ones! They apparently attacked the house, took several of the children, and killed one before the others were rescued!"

"The spid…" Nathaniel's blood ran as cold as his right hand. He finally understood, and the realization clenched the muscles in his chest, leaving him short of breath.

"Yes!" Seiya said with a frenzied nod.

Choosing his words carefully, Nathaniel lowered his own voice and said, "The same ones?"

"Yes!"

"How? I mean, why? They had clear instructions!"

"I don't know!" Seiya said, somehow managing to both wail and whisper at the same time. "But they did!"

Nathaniel gritted his teeth. "They attacked early then."

"Yes! Far too early!"

The icy cold fear that swam through Nathaniel's veins was starting to thaw, as his rising anger began to bring things to a boil. "They accepted the job. They took our money."

"Yes! Absolutely! And we were perfectly clear our demands!"

"We told them when to move," Nathaniel muttered, his hands curling into fists. "We told them how, and against who. We even paved the way for them, and they ignored it all!"

Nathaniel felt the furnace in his heart grow hotter and hotter, blurring his vision with steam and causing the room to tilt. It was like standing on the deck of a ship in a turbulent sea, with everything swaying this way and that.

Damn them. _Damn those wretched youkai!_ So little had been asked of them! All he had requested is that they act according to their godless nature, but save it for the appropriate time and against the appropriate person, but they couldn't even manage that!

The smoke covering his eyes cleared just enough to frame Seiya's face. The other man was nodding vigorously and making noises of agreement, as if he and Nathaniel were equal victims. How wrong he was. Seiya had been the go-between. Seiya had been the one to enter the Youkai Forest and beseech the spider clan to take their contract. He had been the one to explain the details.

He had to have fouled things up. Maybe he hadn't explained things correctly. Maybe, in his squealing, cowardly manner, he had forgotten the important parts. Something had gone wrong, and in such cases, the messenger must be blamed.

Despite most of the room being rendered in cloudy shapes, Seiya's fleshy neck was crystal clear, every fold standing out in stark relief. Nathaniel stared at it, wondering how it would feel with his hand clenched around it, his fingers digging through fat and flesh to close around the windpipe.

**Give in.**

It would be _so easy._ Just a small squeeze, and it would crumple like paper, and Nathaniel wouldn't have to suffer Seiya Kirisame's squeaking any longer. He thought of those black smudges his fingers had left on Seiya's cheeks. He imagined Seiya's entire neck covered with black, withering the fat and sinking in deep to smother him.

**Give in.**

_("Nathan, are you feeling angry again?")_

Nathaniel started a bit. He was used to the Dark Voice, whispering to him from the back of his head, urging him toward violence. But that gentle, admonishing tone came from someplace else, someplace buried…deep…

_(Church was over. The sermon had finished, the final hymn sang, and the concluding prayer sent up to God. Now everyone was milling about, some leaving immediately, others helping clean up, others standing around and talking. Fellowship, Reverend DuBois called it._

_Not Nathaniel Skinner, though. Nobody ever talked to him. Some would try, but they would soon find reason to excuse themselves. Nathaniel knew why. He held himself to higher standards than anyone else, standards that few were strong enough to attempt._

_And that was the problem._

_He was standing by himself, his sky-blue eyes staring with hawklike intensity across the room. There, the Hendersons were leaving, replacing the hymnals and gathering their things._

_The Hendersons were…decent, he supposed, but were weak at heart, and that was demonstrated by their sorry excuse for a son. The boy was fourteen, and completely without respect. He had been slouching all service, not joining in the singing of the hymns, not paying attention to the sermon, not even bothering to close his eyes and bow his head during prayer. He had just slouched their the whole time, legs propped up on the back of the pew in front of him, beady little eyes sullen._

_How_ dare _he?_

_But as he had stood there glowering, someone had sidled up to him, one of the few members of the congregation that still spoke to him. It was Joshua Stump, the dark-skinned Jew, the former addict. At first all of those had repulsed Nathaniel, like someone might be repulsed by an odious stench. But there was something about Joshua that led Nathaniel to at first tolerate, and eventually kind of appreciate. Joshua saw the good in people, and as misguided as he could be at times, it was an admirable trait._

_And he somehow always knew when Nathaniel's heart and mind were starting to boil over, when the screaming was about ready to start._

" _Nathan," Joshua repeated. "You're getting angry, aren't you?"_

_Nathaniel didn't respond. He just continued to stare._

_Joshua laid a hand on Nathaniel's arm. "Don't do it, Nathan. Don't.")_

"Brother Nathaniel?"

Nathaniel looked down. Seiya had laid a hand on his forearm. Even through the sleeve and the bandage, his fingers felt like hot iron.

"Do not _touch me!"_ Nathaniel cried as he wrenched his arm away.

Seiya recoiled. "I'm sorry, I-"

Shaking with barely restrained rage, Nathaniel leaned over so that he was nearly nose-to-nose with the smaller man. "Do not ever, _ever_ lay hands on me again. Ever. Understand?"

"Yes, Brother Nathaniel! Forgive me!"

"Get out."

Seiya opened his mouth, maybe to argue, but he saw the look in Nathaniel's eyes, and quickly hurried away. Nathaniel was about to let him, but then some small part of rationality surfaced.

"Wait."

Seiya froze by the door.

"The spiders. Did they say what happened to the spiders?"

Gulping, Seiya turned back toward him and said, "J-Just that they killed them."

Nathaniel stared. "Killed them. People kill youkai all the time. It doesn't stick."

"That's all that they said! That they, uh, dealt with the with extreme prejudice!"

The wheels in Nathaniel's head started turning. When that happened, the cloud of rage started to get pumped out, and the channels of his brain were cleared. If they had simply exterminated the spiders when they found them and ran off with the children, then that might be a problem. The spiders would simply return, hungry for revenge, and would go rogue. And the longer they were in contention with the orphanage, the morel likely that secrets would spill.

On the other hand, it was entirely possible that they had been dealt with permanently. That wouldn't be so bad. The fewer loose ends lying around, the better, and the world was better off without them anyway. Though it was unlikely that those heathens actually had the means to permanently destroy a youkai on hand. The methods capable of pulling that off were both rare and difficult to pull off.

_(It was the dead of night, with the moon shining brightly overhead. Nathaniel stood in knee-high grass, staring off at the hills. Though he couldn't see it where he was, just beyond that hill was fence that encompassed the orphanage grounds._

_He breathed in and out. It was time._

_Opening the heavy book in his hand, he flipped to the tagged page, the one that detailed the ritual necessary to pull off the overload spell. The steps were both complicated and precise, which is why he had practiced them over and over until he had gotten them right._

_It had taken time, but he felt that he finally got the spell down. He just needed the proper regents in order to do it for real._

_He now had them._

_One was a weatherworn paper charm, plucked right off a fence post. It was designed to repel youkai and their various supernatural cousins, so he had been able to walk right up to the fence and take it off without anyone noticing._

_The second was sitting on a nearby flat stone._

_There were five of them, three fairies and two youkai. They had been all tied together in a circle, back-to-back, their arms bound behind their backs, their legs roped together, and their mouths gagged, their terrified eyes staring at him with mute pleas._

_They were right to be afraid._

_It frankly galled Nathaniel to have to resort to such blasphemous means, to consort with the same magic he was working to destroy. But the Lord did often employ imperfect instruments. He had delivered his warning to King Saul through the witch of Endor, hadn't he? This was no different._

_Though he read the words, he was already mumbling them out loud, reciting them from memory. As he did so, he turned toward his bound captives. Though they were already struggling and whimpering, they froze when they saw the silver blade he drew from its pouch, the blade and the runes inscribed on the hilt. They knew what it was for._

_Yes. It was time.)_

But it was unlikely that they had anything like that at their disposal, much less anything that could be used in something as chaotic as a fight.

Then there was the worst-case scenario, that before eliminating those wretched bugs, they had time to question them, to interrogate them. Nathaniel had been careful to not personally involve himself with any dealings, but there was always a trail.

Then Nathaniel was struck by a thought. "Who told you this?" he said. "Was it Satoko Yume?"

Seiya inhaled sharply. "Oh, that's right! I mean, no. No, it wasn't. It was that woman, the one who insulted both you and Master Sonozika!"

"That woman? You mean, the cook?"

"Yes! She threatened us too. And she…she…" Seiya pressed a trembling hand to his forehead. "She breathed _fire_ at us! Just…spat it at our feet!"

"Breathed…fire?" Nathaniel said skeptically. "You mean, like that trick where you inhale a torch, and…"

"No! She just opened her mouth and a jet of flame came out! I almost had my toes burned off!"

Now _that_ was interesting. "Tell me: given how everyone here seems to have some kind of…occultic ability or another, is the ability to breathe forth flames something that's known to happen?"

"I…guess?" Seiya shrugged. "I mean, my cousin can spit sugar. But I can't say I ever heard of anyone able to do something like this."

Hmmm.

Nathaniel inhaled deeply and exhaled. "Brother Seiya, I have been unduly harsh to you. That was unchristianlike of me. I apologize."

Seiya blinked in surprise. "Ah, oh, um, not at all! I understand. But what are we going to do?"

"Give me time to think," Nathaniel said as he slid the door open for Seiya. "But whatever it is, we must act quickly. Tell no one of this."

"Of course," Seiya said. "Of course."

Nathaniel stood still and listened as the man departed. Seiya's footsteps were fast and heavy, thumping loudly through the house until he had rushed out the side door, slamming it as he left.

Even after the man was gone, Nathaniel continued to stand as still as a statue, eyes staring at the far wall.

Think. He had to think. Now was not to time to lose control. Now was the time to keep and clear mind and approach things rationally.

"Lord Jesus, grant me your wisdom," he whispered. "Give me your strength. Help me see through the lies of the enemy."

Unfortunately, if Jesus had an audible answer for him, he couldn't hear it, because another voice was already speaking, drowning any other messages out.

**Give in.**

…

"It is far too easy, I believe," Nathaniel continued, "in our battle against the wiles of the Devil, to forget why we fight. Just as our Lord Christ was not sent to this world to condemn it, but to save it, we too our sent into the world not leave the wicked and sinful to wallow in their own corruption, but to try to lift them out, to bring them to the Light."

He looked around the room, at all the rapt gazes. Some were nodding in agreement, others had their eyes closed in prayer, others seemed a little confused. After all, this sort of altruism wasn't the norm for one of Nathaniel's sermons. That was all right though. Nathaniel had something of a gift for persuading others to see his point of view.

"We all know that Gensokyo is a wicked country," he said. "Unlike the Outside World, where devils hide in the shadows and work their evil through subtle means, here they walk openly without fear, and we Humans, who were made in God's own image, have little defense against their wiles. And those who have forsaken the fellowship of their fellow Humans to dwell out among the devils often become little better than devils themselves. The Lord commands us to set ourselves apart from those who have invited sin into their hearts, lest we become corrupted as well."

At this, there were more nods, but also more frowns. That was also to be expected. Even though they had been shown the light, the truth still stung.

"But just as we have been commanded to set ourselves apart, we are also called upon to be a Light in the Darkness, to try to draw those who might want to escape damnation and cleanse themselves.

"I speak, of course, of that dwelling place of sin that calls itself the Aoki Yume's Children's Home! It is they that gather the fatherless children of those families who have suffered the rightful consequences of their impiety. It is they that, rather than leading those little lost lambs onto the path of righteousness, instead drive them further toward the arms of Satan."

"Now, in the past I have counseled that if they are going to close their hearts and minds to the Gospel of Jesus, than we ought to close ourselves to them as well, to keep them from corrupting those who might seek the Lord's salvation. But today the Lord spoke to me, chastising me for my lack of compassion. After all, though those who run that place are surely damned for their blasphemies, is it not our responsibility to reach out to those poor children, to show them another way?"

"Earlier this week, a group of youkai from the Youkai Forest attacked the orphanage. And one of the children was killed."

…

Early the next morning, Nathaniel Skinner left his house.

Unlike the night before, he was now rested, bathed, and fully clothed. His hat was straight, his coat unwrinkled, his hands tightly bound and gloved, and not a whisker was out of place.

As he walked, he took note of how the people he passed reacted to them. Some of them, those loyal to humanity and recognized that same loyalty in him, smiled and greeted him warmly. Those of lesser resolve merely politely bowed their heads in passing. Others didn't acknowledge him at all, and a few even turned their heads away in disgust.

That was to be expected. Those who stood stalwart in the light would of course repulse those who dwelt in darkness. But he wasn't interested in that. Rather, he was searching for some sign that any of them had noticed Seiya's idiocy the night before.

Ignoring the immediate reactions of those who passed him in the street, he instead focused on those further away, the ones close enough to see him but not enough to come in direct contact. Though he did not make any indication that he was looking at them, he still studied their faces through the thick, dark glass of his spectacles.

His lip twitched. They were shooting him sidelong glances. They were whispering to one another. Even through dark lenses, he could see the unease on their faces.

 _Idiot._ Though it had served a diplomatic purpose, he was regretting apologizing to Seiya Kirisame. Now he was wishing he had thrown the loudmouthed fool through a wall.

Keeping his visage straight ahead, Nathaniel quickened his pace.

When he arrived at the Sonozika estate, the elderly serving man bowed respectfully. "Welcome, Master Skinner," he said. "You are expected. This way please."

As was often the case, Gendou Sonozika was a mess of anxieties. He was pacing back and forth, hands clasped behind his back, his forehead shiny with sweat.

"Ah, Brother Nathaniel!" he said, brightening as soon as Nathaniel entered the room. "Thank you for coming."

"Not at all," Nathaniel said. "I assume you've heard."

Gendou nodded. "Yes. A youkai attack. A dead child. Terrible business, just terrible."

"Horrible. Just goes to show the dangers of trusting youkai." Nathaniel sadly shook his head. "We tried to warn them, Gendou. We tried to warn them."

"You think that they were friends with these youkai then?"

"It wouldn't surprise me. Have you found what I asked for?"

"Yes, yes! Come with me!"

Gendou led Nathaniel to the courtyard out back. The Sonozika resident was a large, U-shaped building, with a lively garden growing between the two arms. The two men went was at the end of one of the arms. There, a slanted door had been opened in the ground, with steps leading to a room beneath the house.

Gendou lit a lantern and handed it to Nathaniel. As Nathaniel peered down into the dark, his stomach twisted.

He didn't like to go down into dark places. He didn't like it at all.

"I went through all of my family's records," Gendou said, not noticing Nathaniel's discomfort. "And I arranged everything I could find into two piles. One for the Youkai Forest, and the other for…"

"The woman," Nathaniel said, keeping his unease from his voice. "Thank you."

Holding the lantern in one hand, Nathaniel descended into the dark.

Almost as if it were galvanized by the dark and the deep, the Dark Voice suddenly came to life. **Give in,** it told him, its tones sweet and seductive as always. **Nathaniel. Give in.**

Though it said little more than that, the meaning was clear. If Nathaniel were to let it in, to give it what it wanted, than all of the knowledge he desired would be his, with no need to sift through dusty old tomes in order to find it.

Nathaniel ignored it. He focused on the sound of the wooden steps creaking under his heavy boots. The more attention that he paid to the Dark Voice, the more power it had.

Unfortunately, though the message of the Dark Voice stayed the same, there were other voices, voice of his own weak, mortal soul, voices that longed to surrender to temptation.

 _You seek after lesser sorceries to meet your ends, telling yourself that they are a forgivable alternative to that power,_ they said. _But there are no degrees of damnation, just as there are no degrees of salvation. You either are, or you are not._

Nathaniel reached the bottom. He held his lantern high, illuminating the wide space around him.

The floor was of rough stone, coated with dust. Square wooden pillars rose up, holding up the house above him. And everywhere was knowledge.

They came in scrolls and they came in books. There was even a small section of stone carvings. They sat in neat piles, lined up on shelves, and in boxes, some encased beneath ancient, dusty glass while others out in the open. The sum total of all Human knowledge in Gensokyo, both what the original settlers brought with them and what they had gained since. Any academic would gladly give an arm or commit an unforgiveable act of Gendou's choice just to spend half an hour among that treasure.

Naturally, Nathaniel had free range.

Though most of the knowledge he had gained disgusted him, he learned it anyway. In order to destroy an enemy, one must know them. Nathaniel Skinner was fighting a war against the forces of darkness that literally permeated the air of this godforsaken country, both the demonic forces that lurked out in the dark and the ones that dwelt within his heart.

As promised, two piles of texts were waiting for him at a low desk. Nathaniel sat down on his knees in the dirt, laid the lantern down, and went to work.

It being what it was, Gensokyo was less of a country where supernatural phenomena occurred and more of a wellspring of supernatural phenomena that occasionally had meager attempts at civilization spring up like patches of mold. Demonic activity was the rule rather than the exception, and there were large swath that mortals were content to leave well enough alone, making no move settle in and modernize.

The Youkai Forest was hardly the largest or most notorious of those places, but it was up there, and despite Gensokyo's small size, very little attempt had been made to delve into its secrets, even though the country had supposedly existed in its own little pocket of reality before even America had been civilized. Oh, there had been people who tried here and there, daring explorers who had gone in and even a few who had come out. And of course, there was that one family of pagan priestesses that seemed to consider themselves humanity's protectors from the dark forces despite serving those same forces.

As such, there were some recording and observations. There just wasn't very many of them, and what they did have mostly took the form of hearsay, theory, and conjecture. There was very little hard fact to be found.

What little did exist was the smaller of the two piles. Nathaniel thumbed through it, looking for anything that might be what he was looking for.

A rough census of the various youkai communities within the forest, one that was seventy years out of date? No. Something about a "pale white strider"? No. A meadow of sentient mushrooms that lured victims in with songs of sexual ecstasy before…wait, they ate their _sexual organs?_ And nothing else? _Why?_

Shaking his head, Nathaniel put that one aside quickly. The bloodrattles? No. The Yamauba? No. The Throne of Bones?

Nathaniel paused. That one, at least, seemed to be near what he was looking for. He scanned the report only to scowl in disappointment. It was a description of a chair with a bunch of animal bones on it, one hypothesized to contain some ancient forest spirit. Certainly it seemed dark and evil, worthy of being burned away in Christ's cleansing light, just not the source of darkness and evil that he was looking for.

**Give in.**

And then, right when he was convinced that he had gone on a snipe hunt, he found it.

It wasn't much, just a small entry in some long-dead researcher's journal, but it matched the description.

_Of all the myths and legends passed along by the local youkai, few are more perplexing than the talk of something that they called the Bone Grove. Those willing to speak to me are strangely hesitant to mention it, as if doing so will draw its attention. As those who have been willing to speak of me have always seemed to delight in spinning dark and bloody tales of the forest's dangers in hopes of scaring me, this struck me as very strange._

Nathaniel sat back on his haunches, hand stroking his beard as he thought. Well now, _that_ sounded very familiar. Unfortunately, there was little else in there, just a mention of a rumor by someone who was long dead.

_Regardless, I have not been able to even ascertain its location. I spoke to my friend Momo Tweeldewing, who has always been more forthcoming about the forest's secrets. Even she seemed scared to speak of it, and all she would tell me was that long ago, there had been a small village where both Human and youkai lived together in peace, until one day a ball of flame fell from the Heavens and destroyed the village when it hit, and since then no life has been permitted to exist there, and no one in their right mind would ever set foot in that place. She begged me to promise not to seek it out, saying that I would not be strong enough to come back out again._

_Though I could get no more from her, I have to admit I am now even more fascinated by this fabled bone grove, as until now I have never heard of any kind of peaceful coexistence between both man and youkai within the forest's borders. If this story is true, then it could imply that this mysterious comet itself is responsible for the many dark energies that swirl through the Youkai Forest._

Despite his many thick layers of clothes, Nathaniel felt cold sweep through his whole body. He searched through the rest of the documents but could find no other mention of the bone grove. Part of him was glad for that. What little he had found told him that he was in greater danger than he had realized.

And there was still one more pile waiting for him.

Nathaniel cast a dour glance at the much larger stack of scrolls and ancient pieces of parchment. This one he honestly expected to be a waste of time. After all, what were the odds that the woman with the smart mouth working as the orphanage's cook was also the Sonozika family's ancestral enemy? It was far more likely that she had simply heard the name somewhere and used it to screw with Gendou's head. Lord knew the man was certainly…malleable.

Still, he had promised, so he reached for the first scroll and unrolled it.

Though this time there was an abundance of information and carefully recorded observations, Nathaniel wasn't really sure what he was supposed to make of it. According to what Gendou had told him and what he was reading, the Fujiwara family had been business rivals to the Sonozikas sometime before Gensokyo had even been created, which had later grown to being enemies of a more personal sort. There was mention of farm raids, assassinations, attempts to publicly humiliate, and other unscrupulous skullduggery one might expect from that kind of barbaric society. However, while there was plenty talk of Fujiwara no Fuhito and his sons, his single daughter only got a few passing mentions, and then only among familial lists. Apparently even the Fujiwaras' arch-enemies hadn't even considered her worthy of attention.

Right up until she was.

Of the "incident" in question, there was plenty, as the survivors had launched a full investigation once the flames had been put out. Apparently, one day a young woman claiming to be the estranged daughter of Fuhito had shown up at the Sonozika residence. She had called out the family patriarch, demanding that he face her personally to account for the murder of her brother and the many attempts to ruin her family. Predictably, she had been laughed at. And then…

Nathaniel arched an eyebrow.

And then an arrow had been sent through her heart. The culprit had been a bowman positioned on the estate's walls, one who had acted without instruction. Why the fool had done so, whether it be overzealousness or accident, wasn't recorded, as he hadn't survived to be questioned. What was known is that despite being seemingly killed on the spot, the woman had not stayed down. Instead, she had gotten right back up again, pulled the arrow right out of her chest, and…

It was there that the details got muddled. There were several firsthand accounts of what had happened, but few offered anything concrete. What was clear was that the woman had become some kind of demon, a fiery abomination that had taken to the air and rained down damnation on the entirety of the Sonozika estate. Gendou's ancestor had been cooked alive inside his own armor, as had all of his elder sons. His guards had either fled immediately or they perished as well. And seeing how much the Japs valued loyalty, the ones who fled probably had lost their lives as well, once everything that could be learned from them had been learned.

Nathaniel thumbed through the accounts, but there was little variety. Fire and fear, those were the common threads. Reports from later spoke of wanton destruction, indiscriminate and thorough. The estate had been destroyed, burned to cinders but not pillaged. The devil-woman had come to kill and destroy, nothing else.

 _That_ had proven to be her undoing, at least insofar as her revenge had been concerned. If she had taken the time to search out the smoldering remains of the estate she had destroyed, she might have found the caches of wealth that had gone untouched, papers and documents and deeds that had been stashed away in safe places, all things that had allowed the Sonozika family rise from the ashes and reestablish themselves. And had she bothered to pursue those who had fled the inferno instead of concentrating on those who were fighting back, she might have prevented the escape of the youngest of the Sonozika children, from whom Gendou was descended. Instead, she had focused on the old man himself, him and his grown sons.

Regardless, as far as revenge went, it had still seemed fairly successful. Four Sonozikas dead, the patriarch and all three of his immediate heirs. Most of the staff had survived, those who had fled anyway. And they all said the same thing. The woman had taken flight, and everything had burned.

As Nathaniel thumbed through the reports, he came across something interesting. It wasn't really a scroll, though it was wound like one. Rather, it was a silk tapestry, one that had been carefully preserved, though wasn't on display upstairs for obvious reasons.

It was an artist's rendition of that day, or at least as near as could be made.

It was done in that weirdly slanted style that the Japanese seemed to favor, with its broad strokes and flowing lines. Nathaniel had always found it kind of ugly, but regardless of the art style the scene it depicted would be hideous.

The lower half showed the courtyard of what had probably been considered a great house, though it probably had paled to even the most humble of homes in Philadelphia. There were several men wearing primitive armor lying on the ground, screaming in agony. And everything, including the men, was on fire.

The source of the flame was fairly evident. The upper half was taken up by the unholiest of abominations, a flaming demon that was half-woman and half-bird. It flew on great wings of flame, and gore dripped from the talons it had in place of hands and feet. Its beaklike mouth was open, and it was vomiting flame directly into the stomach of the man directly below her, whom was wearing green armor while everyone else wore blue. Gendou's long-murdered ancestor, no doubt.

Nathaniel thoughtfully stroked his beard as he studied the depiction of the creature claiming to be the renegade daughter of the now-extinct Fujiwara clan. Well, he had certainly seemed several youkai who bore animalistic features, no doubt owing to their demonic origin, though he was fairly certain that this was merely artistic license. Or maybe the Sonozika clan had actually almost been wiped out by a flaming bird-woman. Honestly, at this point, Nathaniel would accept anything.

Of greater interest to Nathaniel wasn't the bird-woman's appearance, but what she was doing in the picture, or to be more specific, where the fire was coming from. Specifically, her mouth. Now, given that it was highly unlikely that the artist had set up his easel at the actual site of the slaughter and had her pose to be painted, that was probably just another attempt to be dramatic rather than accurate.

Still…

Seiya's words came back to him. _"Out of her mouth!"_ he had said. _"She spewed fire_ out of her mouth!"

Interesting.

He mentally formed a picture of the uncouth woman claiming to be named Fujiwara no Mokou in his head and transposed it over the rendition of the Fujiwara no Mokou of old. Of course there was little they visually had in common, and by any reasonable metric _that_ Fujiwara no Mokou ought to have been burning in Hell for the last several centuries.

But what if she wasn't?

What if the two were one and the same?

He had to learn more. He had to get in close, examine the situation for himself.

But _how?_

**Give in.**

He shook his head. No, shut up!

Think. He had to think. He had to figure out a way.

Nathaniel sighed. This would have been so much easier in Philadelphia. There, it would be so easy to send someone under the guise of providing charity, and have them-

Wait.

Nathaniel frowned. An idea was forming. It was incomplete, it was certainly risky, but…

He slowly nodded. Yes. Yes, that could work.

…

"For as the Christ our Savior once said, it is better to have a millstone tied around your neck and to be thrown into the sea than to let even one of the little ones be lead into darkness! And though I am certain that some of those children have already welcome sin into their hearts and are beyond saving, there might be those whom still hear the Lord calling to them. There are those who might be persuaded to break away, and seek out the Light."

Nathaniel paused, letting the faithful soak in his words. Then he said, "I am going to propose that our church offers the orphanage relief and support in this trying time. I know this goes against what I have counseled in the past, but the Lord does not make mistakes, and he finds faithful in even the most unlikely of places. Moses was a murderer hiding in the desert when the Almighty appeared to him in a burning bush. Jonah was a coward who ran and hid rather than deliver salvation to the wicked. The great Apostle Paul was a violent man seeking to eradicate the followers of Christ. It might be that, among them, we might also find the next vessel of the Lord's will. And though they may laugh and curse us, though all but one of those children might turn their backs to the Gospel, that single one would have made the attempt worth it. Amen?"

In this, his congregation had no qualms in answering him.

"Amen!"

…

It was at the end of the day, and Nathaniel stood naked and alone in his washroom, staring once again at his reflection.

It was well that his sermons tended to be on the excitable side. That way it was easy to explain how his brow glistened with sweat. Besides, it was the middle of summer! Given how many layers of thick clothes he wore, of course he would come out a little sweaty.

But if that was the case, why did he feel so cold?

He looked down at his hand, the corrupted hand, the one that had been the Dark Voice's conduit. On the surface it looked perfectly fine, and it moved when he told it to, how he told it to.

But he still couldn't feel it. It was like everything from his bicep down had been hacked off.

**Give in.**

He always needed to put in work to wake it up. He would often rise to find it feeling cold and lifeless, but after a hot herbal bath he would be able to beat some feeling into it, even if that feeling was searing pain.

A deep basin of steaming hot water treated with herbs sat on the table next to him. After taking a moment to prepare himself, Nathaniel thrust his hand into the water.

Normally that would be when the agony started, when the heat and herbs would come in contact with the corruption and he would have to bite down on a piece of leather to keep from screaming.

Not this time though. This time, he felt nothing.

No, no, no, no. Nathaniel clenched his hand into a fist, digging his fingernail into his palm. Come on, feel something! Anything.

There was nothing.

He yanked his hand out of the basin and stared at it. Murky water dripped down and steam rose up, but it wasn't flushed with pink in response to the heat. In fact, it was still pasty white, like that of a bloodless corpse.

Nathaniel fumbled around with his left hand until he found his silver shaving razor. He pressed the blade against his palm and drew it across, making a shallow cut.

There was no blood.

_No!_

Again he thrust it back into the water. Come on, feel something! Where was the pain? There was always pain!

But then, though there still was no response from his hand, something did start to change.

The water had stopped steaming. He waved his left hand over the surface and felt no heat.

But it couldn't have cooled that quickly! It had been boiling hot just a moment ago.

Then, as he watched, ice started to form, spreading out from his wrist to consume the entire basin.

Nathaniel hastily yanked his hand back out again. God, even though he still felt nothing from his hand, he could still feel the cold radiating off of it on his chest.

It looked dead. He could move it, but he couldn't feel it, and he couldn't bleed it. It looked dead, it felt dead, and had done so ever since…

_(eyes. Eyes of devils, opening all around him. The relief carvings of twisted death had opened their eyes and were staring at him straight from Hell.)_

…ever since…

_(something was rising from the center of the room. A cylinder, a multi-sided black cylinder. Oh Jesus, help me!)_

…ever since…

_(it's calling to me. I can hear it! It calls my name, draws me toward it, but I cannot resist! My legs are no longer my own, my body moves of its own accord!)_

…ever since…

_(I touch it. It is as cold as ice, freezing my palm to its side. I give the command to tear my hand away, but my body does not move. Then something jabs into the center of my palm, and I feel warm blood leaking out)_

…ever since…

_(I lose an entire layer of skin when I finally rip my hand away. I see it there, a perfect white handprint, frozen to the side of the black box. In its center is a tiny scarlet bead of blood. The blood begins to spread, covering the skin, dying it red)_

…ever since…

_(the box is opening. Oh God, it's opening! It's opening, and-)_

Squeezing his dead hand into a fist, Nathaniel looked up again at his reflection, at his hollow eyes he always hid behind dark glasses. He was scared.

**Give in.**

Nathaniel's legs could no longer support him. He sank to the floor, curling his limbs up into a tight ball, his dead hand clenched at his heart while the other grabbed at his hair. "No," he sobbed. "No, I won't. I won't!"

Though the Dark Voice rarely changed the candor of its message, he was pretty sure he heard its laughter echoing through the deepest recesses of his soul.


	13. Who's Home?

One of the most galling things about being the Hakurei Shrine Maiden is that, despite being humanity's most stalwart protector against supernatural forces that were beyond their ability to defend against, despite having resolved numerous incidents that had put all of Gensokyo in danger, and despite having saved countless lives, Miko Hakurei was not well-liked.

There were of course many unfair reasons for this. Miko lived far from even the roughest Human settlement, and Humans tended to be distrustful of those who dwelt alone in the Wilds. Also, she had working relationships with many youkai, even a few friendships, and youkai were not especially popular these days.

However, perhaps the most immediate reason for her poor reputation was that Miko Hakurei simply was not a people person. In fact, she had a reputation for being kind of a hardass.

It was to be expected. She was getting on in years, her life hadn't exactly been comfortable, she regularly put herself in danger so others wouldn't have to, and was rarely thanked, so she tended to be gruff and cynical in her dealings with others. Also, there were only so many times one could see a ravaged body out in the Wilds and not just view it as evidence to be examined. Yes, yes, I am very sorry for what happened to your daughter, but could you please hurry this along and let me see what's left of her, so I can possibly prevent it from happening to someone else?

But though her heart was hardened, it wasn't gone. There were still a few things capable of biting through her prickly demeanor and igniting a sense of righteous indignation. Learning that the Aoki Yume's Children's Home's defenses were being sabotaged by other Humans, leaving them vulnerable to attack was one of them. The fact that one of the children had already been murdered as a result only made it worse.

As she flew through the air toward the orphanage, Miko wondered what she was going to find. Tewi Inaba had said something about some of the kids being cursed now, though she hadn't any specifics to give. Now, Miko tended to be skeptical of anything that Tewi Inaba said even at the best of times, but something about the obnoxious rabbit's message rang true. Miko had a very bad feeling about this.

As she neared the orphanage, she saw that her intuition had been correct. Something had happened, something bad. From the look of things, the whole building had been evacuated, and a sort of makeshift camp had been set up in the field, with several sleeping mats laid on the ground and a few pavilions erected. Milling around them was pretty everyone that lived there, the overwhelming majority of them children with a handful of adults.

Miko's heart fell. Though she was still too far away to make out any details, the way that the kids were huddling together told her that something bad had happened.

Even with so many people around, Fujiwara no Mokou's bright red outfit stood out. She was standing by herself on the edge of the camp, facing outward. Miko turned toward her and increased her speed.

Mokou had one hand in her pocket, the other with two fingers around the lit cigarette she had in her mouth. As Miko came down for a landing, she calmly took the cigarette out and breathed out a cloud of smoke.

"There you are," she said. "Got lost?"

Ignoring the jab, Miko looked over the children. The ones that had noticed her approach were rising up, hope on their faces. The others were sitting on their sleeping mats, seemingly lost in their own little worlds. "What happened? Tewi said something about a curse?"

"Oh yeah, that's definitely still a thing. But we have something a little more immediate for you to look at first."

From the other end of the camp, Satoko Yume had noticed Miko's arrival and rushed toward the pair. "Lady Hakurei, thank the spirits you're here!" she exclaimed. "We are…in desperate need of your help."

"I can see that," Miko said. "What's going on?"

Sticking the cigarette back into her mouth, Mokou tilted her head to the now-empty house. "Let's go for a walk."

As the three women headed for the house, Mokou started to explain. "Well, it's like this. Tewi probably already told you about how someone took out all our charms and wards, right?"

"Right," Miko said. "Any idea who?"

"Quite a few, but as weird as that sounds, that's actually third in line of our current problems. But anyway, apparently some youkai had known that we would be left undefended and mounted an attack."

"I heard. The spiders, right? Muffet's clan?"

"You know them?" Satoko said.

" _Of_ them," Miko corrected. "They're kind of on the list of usual suspects whenever trouble comes out of the Youkai Forest."

"Those are the cunts," Mokou said agreeably. "Anyway, they came out of nowhere, still in broad daylight, and made off with five of our kids." Her face twitched. "We got four of them back."

Miko frowned. "Those would be the cursed ones, right?"

"Them, and two others. But that's actually number two. Number one is something of an…oh, let's call it an unexpected side-effect. And we have it trapped over here."

They stopped in front of the house.

The actual house of the Aoki Yume's Children's Home was a pleasant two-story white building, one with a slanted roof, large windows, and a wide porch. At all hours of the day and most of the night, lights would be streaming through those windows, smoke rising from the chimney, and children would be everywhere: out playing in the field, or sitting around on the porch, or hanging out of the windows. The air was constantly filled with the sound of children's voices, the sound of them talking, shouting, laughing, and fighting. The Aoki Yume Children's Home was a place bursting with life.

Not now though. Now it stood dark, empty, and silent. The windows were all shut, the rooms beyond darkened. The front door was shut tight as well, and all around the building a ring of Mokou's charms had been stuck to the walls.

That told Miko quite a lot about the situation. Something had gotten in, something that they hadn't been prepared for, and so the only thing they had been able to do was get everyone out and seal off the building to keep the invader trapped inside.

"The kid that the spiders ate was named Eiko Goto," Mokou said. "And she died in a bad way. Bad enough to leave a mark."

Miko nodded. "The ghost came back with you, didn't it?"

"Yup. And it is pissed."

"I assume that whatever it was that took out your outer defenses also wiped out whatever you had in the house itself?"

"Anything we already had set up. All the extra charms we had in storage were fine, but by the time we knew we had a haunting, it was already in the house. And…yelling at us."

"Ghosts will do that," Miko murmured. "Especially fresh ones." She shook her head. "So, on top of everything else, you also need me do some pest control."

" _Pest_ control?" Satoko said, her voice testy.

"What else would you call it?"

"A little girl _died,_ Miss Hakurei. I appreciate that you see far more corpses than we do, but even so-"

Mokou laid a hand on Satoko's shoulder and shook her head. Satoko scowled in indignation, but said nothing further.

"We would have taken care of it ourselves," Mokou said. "Except we don't exactly have any ghost extermination stuff on hand. And the places that sell it don't sell to us anymore."

That got Miko's attention. "Oh _reallllyyyy?"_ she drawled.

"We were recently banned from the village communal market," Satoko said flatly. "And this is after we were banned from the Human Village altogether."

Miko looked over to Mokou. "Does this have to do with you insulting Gendou Sonozika to his face?"

"Yeah, turns out he holds a grudge. Wonder where he gets it from?"

No answer to that question was needed. Miko was well aware of how many of Gendou Sonozika's ancestors met an early grave thanks to Mokou. "Well, I'll put _that_ on my to-do list," Miko growled. Grudges or not, cutting an orphanage off from all help was beyond the pale. And sure, Human affairs might be outside of her jurisdiction, but fuck it, the bounds of her jurisdiction were murky even at the best of times, and it wasn't like there was anyone to report her to. "In the meantime though, I'd better get to cleaning house."

Mokou motioned toward the house in question. "All yours."

Miko stepped toward the front porch. Actually, even though this wasn't going to remove her other problems, she was a little relieved that she was starting off with something like this. Cleaning out hauntings was dull routine to her. Maybe it would help focus her thoughts for the real issues.

"WAIT!" someone cried. "STOP!"

Miko paused. Then she, Mokou, and Satoko all turned.

Two little girls were running toward them, the one in the lead the taller of the two, with honey-blonde hair and golden eyes, and the other with shortly cut green hair and blue eyes.

Before Miko could question what they wanted, she was suddenly struck with a wave of… _something!_ She had no idea what it was, but it felt thick, cold, and suffocating. It was emanating from the two girls like the cloud of smoke from a funeral pyre, the stench of rot from a mass grave. It was so strong that she had to take a step back and avert her face.

Taking no notice of her reaction, the two ran right up to the trio of women. "You're the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, right?" the blonde said. "You're here for Eiko's ghost?"

The stink was making Miko's eyes water. "I…"

"Please, don't hurt her! She doesn't know what she's doing, and I'm sure she doesn't mean to hurt anyone!"

"Oh no," Satoko said softly. Shaking her head, she knelt down in front of the two. "No, girls. That thing in there isn't Eiko. Eiko's in the Netherworld, where all good souls go. That ghost is just an echo of the pain she felt, and when Miss Hakurei here takes care of it, all of her hurting will be over."

"But it's all that's left of her!" cried the other girl, the one with green hair. "You can't just-"

"Come on, come on," Satoko soothed as she gently, yet firmly, led the two away. "It's all right. Come on now."

"But you can't!" the green-haired girl protested. "Please, just let us talk to her, I'm sure we can calm her down!"

As they left, Mokou turned to Miko. "You all right?"

Sniffing, Miko pulled out her handkerchief to wipe at her watering eyes and running nose. "Uh, I guess so. Who the hell were they?"

"Haruko Kamijima and Hayate Maeda. Eiko's friends, if you haven't already guessed."

"I figured. They the ones?"

"That's them. You felt it, I'm guessing?"

Miko nodded.

"So…?"

Miko breathed in deeply, and then started coughing. The air tasted normal, but the spiritual stench still hung thick. "Oh, they have a curse all right. A big one too."

"No shit. What kind?"

"Not sure. I'll have to examine it more closely." A job that, while necessary, she was not looking forward to. "Do you know how it happened?"

Mokou shook her head. "Nah, we found them on the edge of the forest, totally out cold. And when they woke up, they couldn't remember anything."

Frustrating, but not surprising. "Nothing at all?"

"Well, nothing about what or how it happened. The spider stuff they remembered, especially the one that was awake to see her friend get eaten. That was the blonde one. She saw the whole thing."

Miko sighed. "Well, ain't that all kinds of fucked up. You sure Muffet's clan is gone for good?"

"Yeah, about that…" Mokou drawled. "I've got something I need to show you."

"What?"

"Later. For now, ghost. Then we can focus on the curse."

"Fine, have it your way." Miko turned back toward the house. At least her first problem was an easy one. As frightening as they might be to the uninitiated, for her they were dull routine. And this one sounded as straight-forward as they got.

…

Satoko and Mokou stood and watched as Miko Hakurei walked up the porch stairs toward the front door of the haunted orphanage. She didn't immediately enter though, instead walking back and forth across the porch, one hand outstretched, fingers brushing against the wall.

"What is she doing?" Satoko asked.

Mokou reached into her pocket and pulled out her packet of cigarettes. She lit one with her finger, took a deep drag, and breathed out the smoke. "Getting a feel for things," she said. "She can't sense the ghost through the charms, so she has to get in close get any kind of read."

"Oh. Um, and you're sure she can…deal with this?"

"Sure. I mean, this part's just her regular job. It's when she's done with the ghost that things get complicated."

"You mean the curse?"

Mokou blew out another, longer cloud of cigarette smoke. "Yup," she said.

Satoko anxiously rose up and down on the balls of her feet. She was, under normal circumstances, a paragon of patience and tolerance, but the current situation was anything but normal. "And that's why she, um, you know, reacted the way she did to Haruko and Hayate?"

"Yup."

Satoko looked away from the house toward the immortal at her side. On the surface, Mokou was the perfect picture of calm, with one hand in her pocket, the other holding her cigarette to her mouth between two fingers, shoulders slightly slouched, and face almost looking bored. However, there was a harrowed look around her eyes, a worrying intensity in how she stared at the house.

That more than anything was reason to be scared. "Mokou," Satoko said in a low voice. "Are you sure she can handle this curse?"

Mokou exhaled smoke from her nostrils. "No," she said after a long silence.

Satoko started. _"No?"_

"No. But she's the best bet we have."

That was less than reassuring. "Mokou, how can-"

The house's front door suddenly open and Miko Hakurei hurried out, hastily slamming the door behind her. She power-walked down the steps and across the grass toward the two women.

"You have a problem," the shrine maiden said briskly.

Oh no. Oh, no, no, no. Not another problem. Not another wrinkle. Satoko had already endured more than she could stand. Was it bad enough that the rest of Gensokyo was systematically cutting them off little by little, that they were being purposefully sabotaged by their neighbors and invaded by flesh-eating youkai, that six of their children were currently either possessed or cursed or maybe both by something they didn't understand, that their strongest ally was really a centuries-old murderess with a tendency to make enemies every time she went out, that they had to abandon their home because the ghost of a murdered child was seeking revenge for Satoko's failure to protect her? And now there was a new problem with that?

"What is it?" Satoko said. "Oh, wait, let me guess: the ghost is really a legendary blood demon, sent to devour our souls! Or that it's already so powerful that the only way to get rid of it is to destroy the house!" Her voice started to rise in pitch and volume. "Is it not enough that the people that are _supposed_ to be our neighbors have exiled us, that monsters are kidnapping and eating our children alive, that we're being cursed by unknown evils, but now we can't even be _haunted_ without it being somehow worse!"

"Satoko," Mokou hissed. "Get a grip."

"Get a grip? _Get a grip?_ How can you expect me to get a grip after everything's happened? What am I supposed to grip onto in the first place? Odds are it'll just turn out to be covered with poisoned thorns that-"

Mokou seized her by the shoulder and forcibly muscled her into taking a seat.

"Save it for later," Mokou growled. To Miko, she said, "So, what new bad news awaits us?"

"Well, maybe _problem_ is too strong a word," Miko amended. "But it's definitely a complication."

"Just tell us already," Satoko said wearily, her face in her hands.

"Can't, because I don't really understand what it is. You need to see this for yourself."

"Yeah, well, what else is new?" Mokou grabbed Satoko by the bicep and pulled her back to her feet. "Come on, Satoko. Let's see the new addition to the Everyone Hates Us Club."

Miko led the pair back to the house. As they approached, Satoko felt her anger and frustration melt together into a rising sense of dread, and that just upset her all the more. That house was supposed to be her sanctuary, _their_ sanctuary, but now even it had shut itself off from them and become a den of evil. There was literally nowhere that was safe for them.

Sure enough, as soon as Satoko stepped past the threshold of the charms, she felt the temperature immediately drop several degrees. Every alarm bell in her head went off as she began picking up on several things wrong. Her sense of balance started to get all wonky, her sight refused to register anything as being the size that it actually was, the air around her felt oppressively thick, and her ears filled with the sounds of whispers, all sure signs of a haunting.

Maybe too many of them. Either Eiko's ghost was unusually strong, which was a strong possibility given the circumstances of her death, or it had brought friends.

Miko laid a hand on the doorknob. As she did, it suddenly frosted over, cold vapors rising up from the frozen metal. Wincing, she quickly withdrew her hand.

"Here, let me," Mokou said. Her palm rose in temperature until it was faintly glowing and the air around it became fuzzy. Ice hissed and sent up a cloud of steam when she grabbed the knob, but she was able to turn it and push.

First Miko went in, with Mokou not far behind. Satoko hung back, not wanting to follow, not wanting to see Eiko's mutilated face or hear her accusatory screams.

"Oh," she heard Mokou say in surprise. "Well, huh."

"Yup," Miko said in a grim tone.

Satoko glanced over her shoulder. Their small camp was a fair distance away from the house, but even so, she could see that everyone there was watching them.

Watching _her._

Satoko took a deep breath to steady herself. No. No matter how bad things were, her responsibility was clear. And if she had to walk right into the domain of an angry spirit in order to protect those under her care, then she was going to do it. Satoko stepped over the threshold and into the house.

What she found inside wasn't exactly what she was expecting.

Oh, she had anticipated ghostly shenanigans, with horrific images, screams, and Eiko's butchered body being displayed in all manner of stomach-churning scenarios.

Instead, she found themselves staring at row after row after row of grey faces, all gazing solemnly at the trio.

The entrance room was packed with people, most of them children but a few adults here and there. The children were all wearing some variation of the grey uniforms that the orphanage provided. The design had changed little throughout the years, but there were some differences among them. The adults all had on more normal clothes, mostly the simple kind that was often donated by local farmers or the nearby villages. They filled the room, the connecting hallways, and even had more perched on the stairs.

There had to be a couple hundred of them at least, far more people than had ever been in the house at one time. Satoko's hands went to her mouth as she gasped. This was…well, she had no idea how she was supposed to react to something like this. Was she afraid? Well, she supposed so, but mostly she just felt stupefied. Thus far they had been dealing with dangers and threats that were… _mostly_ known. Evil youkai they understood. Ghosts they understood. Evil-hearted people they understood. Even the curse, while certainly of unknown origin, was just something that people expected from the Youkai Forest.

But this…this was new.

Satoko shot a glance over to Miko and Mokou, both of whom probably had numerous encounters with ghosts, spirits, poltergeists, and all manner of undead in her time. However, the supposed expert ghost exterminator Miko Hakurei looked very put out, while the centuries-old renegade Fujiwara no Mokou was ill at ease, warily rising on the balls of her feet as her gaze darted this way and that. She held her hands to either side, fingers curled and arms loose. There was a sudden _whoosh,_ and twin balls of flame ignited around her hands.

"So," Miko said, sounding more irritated than afraid, "I was given to understand that you wanted me to clean out _one_ ghost." She swept an arm toward the ethereal audience. "This looks way more than just one ghost."

"Miko," Mokou said as she warily edged back toward the door.

"I mean, I guess it's still doable, but for something on this scale, I'm gonna have to start charging."

"Miko, cut the crap and explain."

" _Me?_ This is your house, Mokou. These are your ghosts, you explain!"

As the two argued, Satoko continue to look over the expressionless faces silently watching them. Who were all these people? Why were they there? And why were they all dressed in the same uniforms as her kids?

Then she saw a face that she recognized and her heart nearly stopped.

"Tobi?" Satoko whispered. "Tobi, is that you?"

Mokou spared her half a glance. "Satoko, who are you talking to?"

Satoko pointed to the right of the room. "Her! That girl there. Tobi, can you hear me?"

There was a pause, and the shimmering grey bodies shuffled about, and Tobi stepped forward. She had been seven years old when she died, and save for her grey complexion and semi-transparent quality, she looked the same, with hair hanging down her back in a tightly woven ponytail and a ribbon tied around her head with a large bow on either side of her head, just over her ears.

"Tobi, can you hear me?" Satoko said. "It's me, Miss Satoko." She started to move forward, only for Miko to thrust an arm across her chest.

"Don't," Miko said.

Satoko shot her a pleading look. "But-"

"Satoko, who's Tobi?" Mokou said in a low voice.

"She was one of our kids! But…she died, before you came. Before even Joshua came, actually. She got lost during a snowstorm and…Tobi, please! Can you hear me?"

Tobi's face was as blank as her companions, though she did tilt her head to one side, as if trying to listen.

"You recognize anyone else here?" Mokou said.

Satoko looked the crowd over. She did, actually. Most of the faces were new to her, but now that she was looking, a few jumped out to her. "I…I think that's Miss Oa over there. She was one of the caretakers when I was a girl, but she passed before I took over. And that…" She inhaled sharply. "Oh no, _Kale?"_

Now she was looking up at the stairs, specifically at a tall boy that was almost a man. He had spiky hair that was messily combed back and a rather prominent nose.

"And he is?" Miko said.

Satoko's eyes misted over. She blinked a few times and stuttered, "M-My best friend. When I w-was growing up. But…he d-died when I was sixteen. Flash flood. And…and…"

She could say no more. In life, Kale had robust and full of energy, a fun-loving boy that saw their lives as a never-ending adventure. They had grown up together, played together as children, crashed through those bewildering gates of puberty together, and had shared their first clumsy kiss with one another. At the time, Satoko had considered herself the luckiest girl in the world, and she been distraught when that adventure had been cruelly cut short, and for a time it seemed as if the

If their friendship meant anything to the dearly departed Kale, he made no sign, content to remain staring along with everyone else.

Then she saw something that made even her wince. She nudged Satoko with her elbow and pointed. When Satoko saw, she inhaled sharply through her nose but said nothing.

Eiko Goto was there, standing and staring as silently as the others. She was near the door to their left, no longer screaming, no longer spitting up spiders, but she was there. An older woman stood behind her with her arms around Eiko's front, holding her in a protective embrace. The message was clear. _She's ours. Do not touch._

The more Mokou learned about their current situation, the less she liked it. Had all of these spirits been here this whole time, held back by the foundational wards? And did they have any particular opinions about that?

Then a very strange voice said, _I think I can explain._

Again the ghosts shuffled around, allowing one of the adults to step forward. She seemed to be somewhere in her mid-forties, with a pleasantly plump body and a round face. Her hair was tied back in a tight bun, and she had the shoulders of someone accustomed to labor.

It was she that had spoken, if what she had done could be described as speaking. Truth be told, Satoko wasn't even sure if the ghost had made any noise at all. It was like a whisper from a fading dream, a memory of a conversation that had never happened. And yet Satoko had no trouble understanding her at all.

"Who's that?" Mokou asked.

"I…" Satoko shook her head. "I don't know."

Then the ghost woman smiled kindly at her, the first actual emotion any of them had expressed. _Hello there, granddaughter._

Satoko choked. "Wait, _granddaughter?"_

 _Sort of. It's close enough._ The ghost woman bowed low. _I would apologize for startling you, but you did come in unannounced. My name is Aoki Yume, and this is my house._

…

Alone in a crowd. Alone with your family. That was how Melissa felt.

The whole of the orphanage's household was abuzz. The Hakurei Shrine Maiden had finally arrived, and had gone to deal with Eiko's ghost. And after that, she would deal with Youkai Forest curse. Things were going to return to normal! Or at least, some semblance of normal anyway. They were still banished and isolated from the rest of the Humans, but at the very least their problems would be of the mortal variety. No one was going to have to worry about screaming ghosts hanging from the ceiling spitting up spiders or having their throats cut by their possessed friends anymore.

Or at least, that was what the grown-ups had said.

Truth be told, very few of them believe that. When the Hakurei Shrine Maiden had arrived, Melissa had been profoundly disappointed. Some rough-looking lady in a worn red-and-white outfit was supposed to save them all? Everyone half-expected the ghost to chew her up and spit her bones out of a window.

Melissa was one of them. There was a ghost in their house. Their friends were possessed. Most of the strange types of magic in Gensokyo had been nearly incomprehensible to her, but those two she fully understood. And judging by how scared everyone else looked and the way they were whispering to one another, she wasn't alone.

Except she was, because at least everyone else had someone to whisper to. Everyone was in their own little groups, talking in hushed tones to their friends. Even the grown-ups were talking to each other. But not Melissa. The only two people she felt comfortable really talking to was Kana, her only real friend, and Mr. Joshua, who was the only other person from the Outside World and understood enough Spanish whenever Melissa's still incomplete grasp of Japanese wasn't enough. And Kana was one of the possessed and Mr. Joshua was engaged in a hushed conversation with Miss Shion, leaving Melissa by herself. It was just like her first few days until Kana had started following her around, and outcast among the outcasts.

So with nothing else to do, she tried talking to God.

It was something Mr. Joshua had suggested whenever she felt alone. Certainly she knew _how,_ given she had spent most of her life in a Catholic mission, but truth be told she had never really felt close to God, even then. The way that the priests and nuns had described him made him seem scary and unapproachable, someone you needed to book an appointment with weeks in advance and had to mind your P's and Q's when that meeting actually took place, not really the sort of person you'd want to open up to. Why else would he have so many rules and punishments?

She liked the way Mr. Joshua described him better, as more of a big brother who was always more than happy to just sit down and listen whenever you needed him. Certainly that was how he talked to him. Melissa would often hear him having long conversations with nobody whenever he was working. They would often be in English, which nobody at the orphanage understood, so it was more than a little weird, but the other kids seemed used to it, and she had to admit it did sound appealing to just be able to open up about whatever was bothering you whenever you wanted.

Except that God felt more distant than ever. Gensokyo was a world separated from Earth, so Melissa didn't even know if God could hear her. Did he get prayers from this strange, offshoot country? Wasn't that kind of like someone from Mexico trying to write the President of the United States a letter? It just seemed like it would be outside of his jurisdiction!

Besides, Gensokyo had gods of its own, and a lot of them. One could literally go to their shrines and have a face-to-face conversation with them. And while they had rules too, those actually made a lot more sense. Make an offering at their shrine, and have a prayer answered. Someone was sick? Make an offering. It hadn't rained in a long time and the crops were drying out? Make an offering. It was all very straightforward.

Still, she didn't know any of those gods. They had taken visits to shrines before, and she had _seen_ the gods there, but had never spoken to them. She had just been too nervous. What did one say to a god? They hadn't seemed like gods to her, more like rock and roll stars, normal people but with weird clothes and big personalities, still not someone she felt like she could just approach. With God, if he could hear her, all she had to do was talk, maybe even just think! Whatever, it wasn't like she could do anything else.

So, as she paced back and forth across the camp in agitation, she tried talking to God.

"Um, our Father, who's in Heaven, hallowed be thy…uh…hallowed be thy name," she muttered. "They will come, they kingdom be…uh, no. No, it's the other way around." Damn it, she used to know the whole thing! It wasn't like she had much of a choice back then, but it had been so long since she had last recited the Lord's Prayer, the lines were all mixed up in her head.

So she tried something else. "Hail Mary full of grace, and…" Her mind drew a blank.

Just as well, Mr. Joshua had always said that praying to Mary was weird anyway. Fine. Forget the memorized prayers. She was just going to talk, like Mr. Joshua did.

"All right," she muttered. "God, can you hear me? It's Melissa Garcia! You know, the girl that got lost and wound up here. In Gensokyo."

Dai and Yoshi were wrestling all over the sleeping mats up ahead. Melissa altered her course to give them a wide berth.

"I don't know if you can hear me here, if you even care about anything that happens here, but I'm scared. I'm stuck here and I'm scared. I mean, Gensokyo just seemed so much better than where I came from. It's prettier, the orphanage is nicer than the mission, the food's…okay, it tasted a little weird at first, but it's actually better. And they have magic here! I'm actually learning how to fly! I mean, I was, but…" She coughed. "Um, people back…back home would probably just call that witchcraft, but is it though? I mean, you had to make magic too, right?"

She had reached the end of the camp, and since she didn't like the idea of striking off by herself across the field where someone could grab at her, she reversed course and headed back the other way.

"But, um, things are bad now. One of the kids here got…eaten, and now her ghost is haunting the place. A real ghost! I don't know if we had them back home or if they all got put here, but I saw it! And now some of the others are, I don't know, possessed or something? Or just cursed? Something bad. But my best friend's one of them, and they won't let me talk to her, but she's been coughing a lot, and I think she's sick, and I don't know what to do."

She had to stop suddenly, as Miss Haruna was walking across her path, and Melissa almost walked right into her.

"Whoa, careful there, kid," Miss Haruna said.

Melissa cringed. "I'm…sorry," she said clumsily. Making the switch from Spanish to Japanese always sent her stuttering. "Very sorry, I wasn't-"

"Easy, easy, no-" Then she said something too fast for Melissa to catch, followed with, "Just be careful, all right?"

"Okay," Melissa said, then she resumed her pacing.

"Anyway, I don't know if you're even allowed to change anything in here, even if you can hear us, but if you can, please, please, _please_ help them! Help Kana. And, I don't know, help us! No one else is!"

She reached the other end of the camp, spun on her heel, and set off again.

"Besides, there's this group of men. _Bad_ men. They say that they're doing your will, but all they've done is make things hard for us! They're out there trying to make everyone else hate us, and they're doing it in your name. So, shouldn't you, you know, do something about it? Isn't this your responsibility? Mr. Joshua's the only good Christian I know, and he's on our side! Can't you do something for his sake? Or are you just going to leave him to fend for himself just because-"

In her rising anger and agitation, Melissa had forgotten to watch where she was going and walked right into someone who was equally preoccupied.

"-oof!"

She stumbled back, nearly fell, and only just recovered her balance in time.

The other person, who was noticeably larger and heavier than her, might have done the same, had a rolled-up sleeping mat not ended right behind his foot.

"Ow."

To Melissa's horror, she found herself looking down at Noba Fujinami, who had sprawled out in an untidy head.

"I'm sorry!" she blurted out, forgetting in her agitation to use Japanese instead of Spanish. Realizing this, she corrected to, "Um, sorry, sorry!"

"It's fine, it's fine," Noba grunted. Melissa reached down to help him up. Their hands grasped, and…

Oh.

Wow.

Noba straightened up and brushed himself off. "Sorry about that," he muttered. "Was kind of preoccupied."

"Oh, it's…good!" Melissa said, hoping he hadn't noticed how flustered she had become. "Um…how is…" Damn it, now she was forgetting simple words! "…your…face?"

Noba stared blankly at her.

"Head!" Oh, if a youkai felt like kidnapping her, now would be the time! "Sorry. Head! How is your head?"

"Oh," Noba laughed. "Yeah, um, funny thing. Ever…" Then he said something long and kind of rambling. Melissa listened intently, trying to grab onto all the words she recognized and use that context to figure out what he was trying to say.

Noba must have seen the look on her face, as he then let his words trail off. "Oh," he said, more slowly this time. "Sorry. Was I too fast?"

"No, it's okay," Melissa was quick to say. She felt as she had caught the gist of it. "You…feel better after, uh, after they locked the…" Oh damn. "The ghost! They locked the ghost in the house."

"Yeah, that's it," Noba said. "I guess that knock to my head made me more…" a word that Melissa didn't know yet, probably "sensitive" or something like that, "…to magic stuff."

"Maybe," Melissa said. "I don't know. I never met a ghost before."

Noba made a face. "Me neither. It's freaky."

"Yeah."

The two fell silent, though on the inside Melissa anything but. In fact, her mind was screaming at her memory, begging for it to upload every bit of Japanese she knew, right now, thank you!

Fortunately Noba broke the silence first. "So, who were you talking to?"

Unfortunately, he had decided to break it with someone embarrassing. "Oh, no one," Melissa said by reflex. "I just…" Then she sighed. Oh, why not? "To God."

"God?"

Melissa winced and shrugged. "Yes."

"A god came here?" Noba said, his handsome face scrunching up in puzzlement. "To help?"

"No," Melissa said. " _To_ God. To…" Her memory failed her, and she gestured helplessly in Mr. Joshua's general direction, hoping that would get her point across.

Fortunately it did. "Oh, you mean _your_ god, from the Outside World? The same one Mr. Joshua's always praying to?"

"Yes," Melissa sighed in relief while wondering how to turn the conversation away from religion. "Him."

Noba tilted his head to one side. "Does he ever talk back?"

"I don't know," Melissa said honestly.

"Okay." Sighing, Noba scratched the back of his neck and looked around. "Uh, hey, are you all right?"

"Uh…why?"

Noba shrugged. Well, Kana's your friend, right. You must be worried about her.

"Yes," Melissa admitted. "Yes, I am."

Noba nodded. "Well, don't worry. The Hakurei Shrine Maiden will help her."

Melissa swallowed back the lump she felt forming. "How do…How do you be sure?"

"Well, it's what she does," Noba said, frowning.

Was it? Was it really? Some old woman she had never met before was supposed to save them all? "We have ghost!" Melissa said, struggling to find the right words to put her fears to speech. "We have…curse! Youkai eat us! Everything is _bad!"_

Her throat seized up, and she felt hot tears starting to form. Feeling hot in the face, she hastily turned away before Noba could see her.

She had screwed up. She had screwed up and made things worse. Noba had actually gone up to her and talked to her, and she had acted like a total spaz. And she was still scared, was still worried _sick_ for Kana, God wasn't doing anything, and now Noba probably thought that she was-

Then a large, strong hand slipped around hers.

Melissa gawked up in shock to see Noba standing next to her. "Sorry," he muttered. "I guess this would be scarier for you."

Well, that was true enough. "You not scared?" she blurted out.

"Oh yeah," Noba said with a bitter laugh. "Very. But not of the ghost. And not of the curse."

" _Why?"_

Noba shrugged. "Because there are always ghosts and curses and youkai. But we know what to do about them. Those…" he said another word that Melissa had heard several times but had never learned the meaning, though it sounded very derogatory, "…that attacked us in the market, that knocked me out. Them I'm scared of. That's different."

Melissa knew what he meant. That was one thing that hadn't changed, one thing that was the same no matter what world she was in: people with ugly hearts doing ugly things. "Why are they like that?"

"Wish I knew. I thought it was their weird god, but you're nice, and Mr. Joshua is nice, and…" Then he went red in the face. "Oh, sorry. That wasn't very polite, huh?"

"It is fine!" Melissa quickly changed the subject. "You really think they will try to hurt us again?"

At this, Noba thoughtfully rubbed his chin with his free hand. He had a dusting of stubble on it, and over his cheeks. It gave him a cool, mature look. "You know, back when my head was hurting all the time, I kept having these weird dreams. Bad ones, where the house would be on fire, and we'd be trying to get out, but all the doors and windows would be stuck and…" His voice trailed off.

"That…That sounds…bad."

"Oh yeah. But in those dreams, it was never youkai that was setting everything on fire, not ghosts, not demons. It was Humans. Other Humans." A flash of anger crossed his face. "I mean, youkai are youkai. That's what they do. What are those people's excuse?"

"They are bad," Melissa said flatly. "They are bad men and bad women. Bad people do bad things."

"Well, if so, then it ought to be them that the youkai carry off! We didn't do anything! We didn't…uh…"

"Uh what?"

Noba pointed with her free hand. "Who the hell are they?"

Melissa looked. And then her heart fell.

There, across the grass, on the other side of the fence, three people were coming down the road toward the gate.

Three people dressed all in brown.

"They're back," Noba whispered.

…

"This. Friggin'. _Sucks!"_

The group now dubbed the "Black Circle Six" sat in, well, a circle, one that was set apart from the rest of their family, well on the other side of the field. Normally Miss Mokou would be with them, but even she was gone, having entered the house with Miss Satoko and the shrine maiden.

Rumia hated being cursed. It was worse then being sick. At least when you got sick it just meant that you felt like crap for a few days and didn't get to play with anyone and didn't have to do chores in the meantime. All that was true about being cursed, but it wasn't something you just got better from, and everyone kept looking at her like she was going to snap and kill everybody.

 _Maybe I should,_ she groused to herself. Not seriously of course, but she was in a bad mood. _Show them for looking at me like that. Like it's my fault some big evil magic coughed on me. Like it's my fault that stupid voice keeps saying-_

**Give in.**

_-that. That it keeps saying that._

"I hate this," Rumia continued to grumble out loud. "What's taking them so long? Shouldn't they try to fix us first?"

Hayate glowered at her, her eyes red and blotchy from crying. "Will you shut up? It's not your friend that they're going after."

Rumia groaned. "Oh, for the last time, it's not Eiko! It's just her stupid ghost!"

"Are you sure?" Kohta said, his face pale. Despite everything that had happened to them, the arrival of Eiko's ghost had shaken him the most. "It might be her. She might be mad at us for not saving her too."

"Oh, now you believe in ghosts, huh?" Rumia snapped.

"Shut up, Rumia!" Haruko yelled at her.

"Don't tell me to shut up, you shut up!" Rumia yelled back.

Haruko leapt to her feet. "You're happy about this, aren't you? You're happy she's dead, you're happy that they're killing her again, and you probably wish the spiders killed us too!"

A moment later Rumia was on her feet as well, fists balled and ready to swing. "We saved your life, numbskull!"

"But you didn't save hers! If you hadn't gotten there so late she would still be alive!"

"Enough!" Keine roared. She had been mostly silent all day, groaning and rubbing her head like it was paining her. But apparently even she had a breaking point. "Enough, enough, enough! Gods, it's bad enough that we have all this other crap going on without you two yelling at each other!"

"Keep out of this, shrimp!" Haruko's voice rose to a shriek. "We didn't ask you for-"

"Ah!" Keine curled into a ball and grabbed at her head with both hands. "Please, just stop yelling!"

Rumia rushed to her side. "Keine, are you okay?"

"No, I'm not okay! I'm cursed, my head feels like it's going to explode, my stomach won't stop hurting, and you all won't shut up! Of course I'm not okay!"

Her anger cooling into guilt, Rumia sat down next to her. After a moment both Haruko and Hayate did too.

"What's wrong with your head?" Kohta said at last.

Keine shot him an irritated look. "Seriously? You guys don't have it too?"

Kohta shrugged. "Well, I mean, my hand's still all prickly, and I got that whole voice in the back of my head going all, **Give in,** but I don't have a headache. Or a stomachache." Rumia had to admit, his imitation of the curse's black voice was pretty spot on.

"So it's just me then?" Keine sighed. "Oh, that just _figures!"_

Haruko cleared her throat. "Maybe it's just, you know, your…" Her voice got small. "Womanly…issue."

Kohta stared. "Her what now?"

Rumia sighed and buried her face in her hand. She loved Kohta dearly, but he could be just so stupid sometimes.

"It's not," Keine said flatly.

"Are you sure? Have you even had your first one yet?"

"Her first _what?"_ Kohta said. Rumia elbowed him in the side.

"Shut. Up. Haruko!" Keine hissed.

Then Kana piped in with, "Perhaps she is dying as well."

That got a groan from everyone. "Oh, for crap's sake," Rumia said. "Really, Kana?"

"It is a possibility," Kana said calmly. "We still do not know the origin of this curse. It may be fatal."

"Well, thanks," Keine said as she continued to massage her head. "Appreciate that."

"You are welcome," Kana said without a hint of sarcasm. Then she started coughing again.

Then Rumia frowned. "Wait, what do you mean 'as well'? Who else is dying?"

"Me," Kana said after her most recent fit had quieted. "Isn't it obvious?"

"No," Rumia said immediately. "You're not dying. You're just sick because you got more spider venom than everyone else. Once the curse is gone, you'll start feeling better."

"Oh, I don't believe so," Kana said, in that bewilderingly serene manner of hers.

Rumia glared. "You're not dying."

"I think I am," Kana said. Then she brightened. "Oh, that reminds me. After I'm dead, would you please ask that the shrine maiden not exterminate my ghost? I would hate to have to die twice."

"See!" Haruko said, pointing at the frail weirdo. "Even she knows this is wrong!"

Keine winced. "If you guys don't shut up, I'm actually going to **give in** and find out what the fuss is all about."

"No," Kohta said, his voice firm. He laid a hand on Keine's shoulder. "No, you're not. None of us are giving in, and Kana, you're not dying. The shrine maiden will clean up the house, she'll get rid of the curse, and we can all move back in."

"That's nice of you to say so," Kana said. "You are wrong though."

Hayate swallowed. "What if she's right? What if the shrine maiden can't fix us?"

"Huh?" Rumia said. "It's her job, isn't it?"

"Yeah, okay," Rumia sighed. "Kana? You're not helping."

"Was I supposed to help? I apologize, but no one has explained what my responsibilities are."

"What if this is too big for her though?" Hayate said, as if the others hadn't spoken. "What if it infects her too?"

"She's the Hakurei Shrine Maiden though," Rumia said. "She deals with this stuff all the time."

"As far as we know! What if this one gets her? Then who'll save us?

"Who are they?" Kana wondered.

"What, the Hakurei Shrine Maidens? Gods, Kana! I know you're an airhead, but this is dumb even for you!"

"No, not her, _them!"_ Kana pointed across the field toward the camp of everyone who wasn't cursed, or to be more specifically the gate that lay beyond them. "Those men there. I don't recognize them."

When Rumia saw what Kana was pointed at, she hissed through her teeth.

A trio of men was striding across _their_ field toward _their_ family, men wearing brown robes, the same as the ones who had crashed Eiko's funeral.

"Is that them?" Hayate asked. "Are they back?"

"Oh, they're back all right," Rumia said. "And you know what?"

She abruptly stood to her feet, and before anyone could stop her she started to make her way across the grass.

"Hey, wait!" Kohta called after her. "Where are you going?"

"Those are the same assholes that did _all_ this to us!" Rumia called over her shoulder, not slowing her gait in the slightest. "It's their fault we got banned from everything, it's their fault we got attacked, it's their fault Eiko is dead, it's their fault we're cursed, and it's their fault we can't even sleep in our own house. So you know what? I'm gonna go over there, and when I do…"

**Give in.**

"…I'm gonna find out if this curse really is contagious!"

…

Four elderly women sat together at the dining room table.

To be clear, the term "elderly" is not to imply that they were in any way weak or frail, but to state that they literally were elders of their respective worlds, matriarchs who had done great things and had earned their authority and respect.

Satoko Yume was the youngest of the four, but she was still soon to exit middle age, and had devoted her life to caring for the lost children of Gensokyo, running its only orphanage as its chief matron and ensuring that those under her care were given the best life possible.

Miko Hakurei was the second youngest, and she would not be considered a young woman by any mortal metric. True, her family was especially long-lived, but even by the Hakurei standards she was just starting to get along in years, enough to give her the odd wrinkle or grey hair that had nothing to do with her harrowing job. And she was also the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, a very important role indeed, if often underappreciated.

Aoki Yume was, as she appeared, a ghost, one that was generations old, and as the original founder of the house that bore her name, she had ensured that her legacy was a good one, and one not soon forgotten.

Mokou was Mokou.

But despite all of them having lived a full life, such as they were, and despite all of their respective accomplishments, it did not feel like a meeting of equals, as evidenced by how they each felt about those who they shared the table with. Aoki, despite very much being a spirit of the dead, was totally at ease, as if she were nothing more than a kindly grandmother entertaining the ladies of the village to tea. Miko, who had brought them all together, was wary and slightly irritated, as she often was when an incident that she had been brought in to resolve had developed unforeseen complications, as they often would. Mokou was more curious than anything. She wasn't afraid, and she had certainly seen stranger phenomena in her time, but even she hadn't expected the literal ghost of Aoki Yume herself to appear. At any rate, their little haunting problem was looking to become an unexpected advantage rather than a danger, so she intended to hear this new specter out and figure out how to turn things to their advantage.

Satoko, however, was both awed and terrified. True, it was still technically her house, and she was very much used to being in charge, but having one ghost around was bad enough. Learning that there were actually a couple hundred floating about and oh yes, they're represented by your long-dead and highly revered great-to-a-significant-exponent grandmother was, to put it in layman's terms, blowing her brain. She was sitting stiff and still, not even daring to blink, the only movement of hers being the trembling around her forearms and calves.

Aoki looked around at those gathered. _Sorry I don't have anything to offer you,_ she "said." And by that, her mouth moved and the other three understood her well enough, but later upon reflection none of them could confidently say that they had actually heard anything. _But you did take most of the food when you ran out, including all the tea._

Mokou shrugged. "Yeah, well, dead girl shows up on your ceiling and starts vomiting up spiders, you tend to not want to stick around."

 _Still. Rude._ Aoki then turned her attention to Satoko, who was sitting directly across from her and, it should be noted, had yet to blink. _Dear, please. Your eyes will dry out like._

"I-" Satoko finally closed her eyes and opened them again, albeit much slower than a natural blink would have. "I-I'm sorry, I still don't understand. _You're_ my, ah…"

_Don't bother counting all the greats, dear. Even I lost count._

"Oh, um. But still. You claim to be Aoki Yume? _The_ Aoki Yume?"

_I claim nothing. I am who I am._

Miko let out a long and irritated sigh. "Okay, look: this is all very fascinating, but can we speed this along? Because I'd really like to know-"

Aoki's grandmotherly smile thinned a bit. _Speak when spoken to, young lady. And do not interrupt your elders._

Miko's head actually jerked back in surprise at the reprimand. But then she smiled. "It's been a long time since anyone's called me 'young lady.'"

_My hair is far greyer than yours is. I'm entitled._

"A'ight," Mokou said. "But she has a point."

Now Aoki was starting to look a little put off herself. _What did I just say?_

Mokou smiled that slow, lazy smile that a few unlucky individuals had learned to fear. "You're not my elder, not by a longshot. Hell, the list of people in this weird little country that can be called my elder is in the single-digits."

At this, Aoki's face started to look a little more figuratively grave than literal. _No. You're right, I'm not._ She paused, and then said, _You are not a good person._

Both Satoko and Miko shot looks at Mokou, as if expecting her to take extreme exception to the blunt observation. However, she wasn't even ruffled. "Oh, no. You're right about that: I'm not. My soul is as pure as the driven yellow snow. But even if I am a monster, I'm one that's on your side. And you need me, young lady."

That got a ghostly smile. _Yes, I suppose that's true._

Mokou rolled her wrist. "You know our questions. What're the answers?"

_That I cannot properly explain. You must be shown. Only then will you understand._

"Huh?" Satoko sat up straighter. "Show us what?"

Aoki stood up. _Follow me, please._

"To where? Grandmother, what are you showing us?"

Instead of answering, the shade of the orphanage's founder walked over to the large double-door that connected the dining room to the hall, the same they had come through. It was closed shut. She laid a shimmering hand on its frame.

Mokou and Miko exchanged a look. The shrine maiden shrugged, and they both rose. After a moment of hesitation Satoko followed.

 _Understand, I am not adding to your problems,_ Aoki said. _But you need to understand that what you protect is far more precious than you had ever known, and I know you already held it dear._

"What?" Satoko said. "What are you talking about? Is there some kind of, I don't know, ancestral treasure hidden here?"

 _Something like that, yes._ With that, Aoki opened the door, and golden light poured out.


	14. A Tale of Two Houses

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Hey guys, I know it's been several months since the last update (sorry about that: had a ton of other deadlines I had to focus on). So here's a quick refresher: we recently discovered that the orphanage is now haunted by the spirit of Eiko Goto, the little girl that had been captured and eaten by the spider youkai. Furthermore, Rumia, Kohta, Keine, Hayate, and Haruko are all infected with some kind of malicious curse. Anyway, Miko Hakurei, Reimu's mother, was brought in to deal with both, but she discovered that the orphanage is filled with dozens, if not hundreds of ghosts, including the spirit of Aoki Yume, the orphanage's original founder, who takes Mokou, Miko, and Satoko through a glowing door to show them something important.
> 
> With that out of the way, on with the show!

There was a dream Satoko often had as a child.

In it, she is wandering the halls of the Children's Home, trying to find something that she can never find. The house itself always starts as its familiar layout, but the further it goes, the stranger it gets, with the hallways leading to more hallways that weren't there before, doors appearing in places they ought not to be and leading to parts of the house that weren't supposed to exist, and more and more rooms simply appearing, rooms that bear a strong resemblance to the rooms she knew from her actual home, but did not actually exist.

As she followed the ghost of her famous ancestor through the door into the golden light, Satoko found herself remembering those dreams, and she wondered if they hadn't just been tricks of the subconscious of a little girl, but instead glimpses to a world that always had laid just beneath the surface of her own, so tantalizingly close and yet completely out of her reach until now.

The light faded, and she, Mokou, and Miko Hakurei all found themselves still standing in the orphanage's halls. The floors were the same, the patterns of the walls were identical, and even the design of the ceiling mirrored the one Satoko always knew. But it was no longer dark and abandoned like it had been mere minutes before. Now the lights were all on, and it was filled with life. All around Satoko came the familiar babble of children's voices mixed with the occasional of an admonishing adult, which had constantly been in the background of her entire life.

"Huh," Mokou said as she looked around. "So…has this always been here?"

Aoki Yume was no longer a pale, transparent shade. Now she had actual form, substance, and color, though there was a shimmering gold aura surrounding her. "Yes," she said. "From the very beginning."

Miko looked troubled. "You know, this sounds like the sort of thing I ought to have known about."

"Blame your forebearers then for not keeping track of things. Three generations of Hakureis were well aware of what I had created. I can only assume that this knowledge was forgotten."

The shrine sucked in a belabored sigh and hissed it out. "See, this is what happens when you don't give your guardians proper funding! We're supposed to be Gensokyo's first line of defense, but we can't even afford proper record keeping!"

"How many times has your shrine been demolished, anyway?" Mokou wondered.

"Oh, don't get me started. Just Mima alone makes a point of knocking it down every time a new shrine maiden takes over, just to prove a point! I've had to rebuild it on four separate occasions!"

Satoko said nothing.

Aoki led them through the house, and the similarities to Satoko's childhood dream only grew. The halls seemed to go on and on, creating enough internal space to fill a palace, and it was all populated. There were children everywhere, the same ghostly children Satoko had seen in the main lobby of her house. But like Aoki, they were no longer shades, and they were no longer standing still and staring with blank faces. Now they were acting like, well, children: running around, playing, napping, and behaving very much like the living children under Satoko's care.

As they walked, Aoki continued to explain. "I guess what you're seeing is self-evident. I founded the Aoki Yume's Children's Home to be the shelter for Gensokyo's lost children." She paused, then then said, "All of them."

"Ah. A home for wayward ghosts then," Miko said.

Aoki nodded. "My father was slain by youkai when I could barely walk. Gensokyo was still young, and there were few Humans. My father, bless him, had heard that that the mountains were filled with silver, and he set out to be the first on the spot. We never heard from him again."

"How do you know it was youkai then?" Miko asked. "I mean, there are other dangers. Storms, regular animals, illness, that sort of thing."

"We knew," Aoki said without explaining further. "We lost my mother not soon after. There was a fever, and we all caught it. I, my brother, and my sister all survived. Mother did not."

Mokou let out a low whistle through her teeth. "Yeah, I know what that's like. Losing your mother to illness."

Though she was listening intently, Satoko was also trying to keep track of where they were going. They had long departed from the original house's layout, and the halls just seemed to stretch on and on. Every now and then they would pass an open door, and Satoko would catch a glimpse of various rooms inside. There were playrooms, similar to the one they had, only these were larger. There were also libraries, filled with children just sitting around reading, sometimes with an adult telling stories to a rapt audience. Others were sleeping rooms, with kids napping (ghosts _slept?)_ on rows of mats on the floor. Other rooms were modestly furnished social rooms, with mostly adults sitting around relaxing. Overall, it was a very nice place, but the deeper they got, the more on edge Satoko became. Just how big was this _other_ house?

"We had nothing," Grandmother Aoki continued. "You have to understand, this was not long after the rampage of Minerva the Youkai Queen, and there were only a handful of Human survivors. The Human Village had not yet been built, the Hakureis had yet to split off from the Sonozikas, and-"

Miko came to an abrupt stop, and Satoko nearly walked straight into her back. "I'm sorry, the Hakureis had yet to _what?"_

"You didn't know?" Aoki said.

"Know _what?"_ Miko demanded.

Aoki honestly looked bewildered. "You are the Hakurei Shrine Maiden. How can you not know your own family history?"

"We just went over this! Do you know how many times my shrine's been demolished and rebuilt? Do you know how little help we've had with any of that? If we ever had any kind of records, they went up in smoke decades ago!"

"Oh." Aoki's face fell. "I'm sorry, child. I thought you knew."

Miko's teeth were audibly grinding together. "I'm running out of patience here."

"The Hakureis…your family…were originally the Sonozikas," Aoki explained in a gentle tone. "The first Hakurei was a Sonozika, but the family name was changed once you were given your responsibilities."

"Oh," Miko was stunned. "Well. I…had no idea. Though I suppose it makes sense. The Sonozikas always ran the show, so…"

Then her eyes widened with realization.

"Wait," she said, turning to Mokou. "Did you _know?"_

"I mean, sure," Mokou said causally, hands shoved into her pockets. "It was still pretty common knowledge when I came to Gensokyo."

Miko stared in disbelief. "And you never told me?"

"What do I look like, your nanny? I'm not responsible for your family. If you had asked, I would have told you. But you didn't, so I didn't."

A small, yet noticeable twitch had developed beneath Miko's right eye. "Is that right? And is there any _other_ secrets of my family's history that you are sitting on?"

"The fuck you going on about? I don't keep tabs on your youkai-busting ass. I have my business to worry about."

Satoko wearily raised her hand. "That's enough, please. No arguing right now. I…We really don't need that."

"All right," Mokou said nonchalantly.

There was a pause, and then Miko said in a cold tone, "I suppose I should thank you for not completely exterminating the family line and preventing my eventual birth, by the way."

"You're very welcome," Mokou said in much the same tone.

Satoko was horrified by what was just casually dropped. "You almost exterminated the Sonozikas?"

"Look, you open the book of my life and read a chapter, you're gonna have to go through the whole thing just to get context. Yes, I almost wiped out the Sonozikas, but it was before Gensokyo was even a thing, okay? Besides, they deserved it."

"Arguably," Miko said.

"Look, that's neither here nor now, so let's get back to both of those. Grandmother Aoki, your story?"

Despite being the spectral matron of an inter-dimensional refuge to hundreds of ghosts, Aoki looked fascinated by Mokou and Miko's exchange, which really said a lot about the kind of company Satoko was keeping at the moment. "Ah. Um, right. Well, like I said, we had very few friends. All of the other families were having enough trouble as it was keeping food on their table without taking in three new hungry mouths. My elder sister did the best she could to look after my brother and I, but she was little more than a child herself, and it was a cold winter that year." Aoki's gentle smile thinned out. "One morning, my brother didn't wake up, and it was just the two of us."

As someone who had had several children she cared about go to bed one night and never wake up, Satoko certainly sympathized, especially considering it had been Aoki's brother. "I'm sorry," she said softly.

"Past is past, my dear Satoko. In time we found a farm that was…well, it was what passed for prosperous at that time, though I suppose many modest homesteads today would find it rather scrawny in comparison, and they were willing to give us a place to sleep and food to eat, provided that we work for it." Aoki closed her eyes and sighed. "And work we did. Every day we'd rise with the Sun and spend all day out in the rice fields until long after night had fallen." She paused, and then said, "Even then, my sister always protected me. Every time my legs gave out and I spilled my bags, she took the blame, and the lashings. Every time I was too weak to work, she did my part for me on top of her own. Even when she fell ill with a fever so hot I could feel it radiating off of her, she still worked. And then it was just me."

Mokou clicked her tongue. It was a small gesture, barely perceptible, but Satoko could feel the anger coming off of her. "Say, these assholes that worked your sister to death. They still around?"

"What are you going to do?" Miko said. "Wipe out their descendants?"

"Well…"

"I do not know, nor do I care," Aoki said. "And it doesn't matter. What does is that fate took our parents away, and no one was there to help. So it was then that I promised myself that if I ever lived long enough to reach adulthood, I would allow no other child to suffer as I suffered. I was going to build a home for all of Gensokyo's lost children. And I did."

"The Children's Home, yes," Satoko said as she looked around at the impossible house they were walking through. "But…the ghosts? And…this house?"

Aoki stopped by a door. At first Satoko thought that she was going to show them something inside, but she didn't even open it; she just needed a moment to compose herself. "Three days after my sister died, I came back from…from the fields. They didn't even let me grieve, they just said I now had to do her work on top of mine, so I was out there until it was nearly dawn. And _she_ was there. Right where she used to sleep. Right where she died. She was crying, saying how sorry she was that wasn't strong enough to stay, saying that she had failed me. And…" Aoki shook her head. "They threw me out. They said I had brought a demon into their home. Ghosts weren't as well understood as they are now, you see. So they threw me out and, well, I never found out what they did to my sister's ghost, but I can guess. They killed her twice."

Then she opened the door.

Through it was an indoor garden, or at least it seemed to be indoors. Certainly the walls seemed to surround it, or at least as much as Satoko could tell. If there was a roof, it was very high up, and obscured by wispy white clouds, from which actual sunlight seemed to be emitting. The garden itself was a sight to see, not too dissimilar of those fairy gardens Satoko had heard of existing deep in the more magical forests, with bright and colorful plants, giant mushrooms, and babbling brooks. Gazebos, playhouses, elaborate tree forts, bridges, and randomly assorted furniture were scattered everywhere.

And it was filled with children.

In many way the sight was quite similar to what Satoko saw out through the window or from the porch every day, whenever her kids were out playing in the field. Only this was so, so much more. There were at least several dozens. Hundreds, maybe.

"So as I wandered the Wilds, all alone, that is when I decided," Grandmother Aoki said. "I was going to build a house, and I would take in all of Gensokyo's lost children, both living and dead. And so the Aoki Yume's Children's Home has stood as a sanctuary, an imperfect sanctuary, certainly, but a sanctuary nevertheless. Children who have lost their families are given a home here. And if cruel fate takes their lives as well, then they still have a place to go."

Satoko gawked at the sight. All her life she never once suspected that her house was hiding anything like this, that the spirits of countless dead children were right beneath the surface. "But…the runes! The runes in the foundations! They would have stopped any ghosts from forming, or even coming in!"

"Would they?" Grandmother Aoki said. "Have you ever seen them?"

"Well, no," Satoko admitted. "Of course not. They were buried."

"Then how do you know what they were designed to do?" Grandmother Aoki went through the door. Miko followed her without hesitation, and Mokou wasn't far behind, though she did linger a bit before stepping out onto the grass. Satoko held back longer. It wasn't that she was afraid for her safety per se, but rather that she was starting to feel much like a child herself, the insignificant mortal trespassing where she didn't belong. Grandmother Aoki was a centuries-old-spirit, Miko Hakurei's entire life was spent interacting and earning the respect of supernatural forces, and Mokou was…Mokou. She was just a simple, middle-aged woman. She didn't belong here.

"Satoko?" Grandmother Aoki called. "Come, come, dear. You need to hear this."

Exhaling, Satoko followed. No, she had to keep a sense of perspective. Whatever was needed from her, she would do, for her children's sakes.

Grandmother Aoki led them over to a small wooden deck, where several benches were set up around a lit firepit, the flame within shimmering in blues and purples. Sitting down in one of the benches, Grandmother Aoki held out her hand to the others, inviting her guests to sit as well. Miko Hakurei claimed a whole bench for herself, while Satoko sat down close to Mokou, the only bit of familiarity she had left; which, considering what Mokou was, really said a lot about the direction her life had taken.

"The foundation runes weren't what you thought they were," Grandmother Aoki told them once they were seated. "Certainly they would have kept you safe from hauntings, but they would not have stopped the ghosts from being created. Or kept them out."

Miko nodded. "You created a Domain, a self-contained plane of existence."

"There are two orphanages, two Children's Homes," Grandmother Aoki said, holding up the appropriate number of fingers. "The one is the one you inhabit, where you care for lost Human children. The other is where I do my work." She then stuck her hand right into the fire. Satoko jumped a little at the sudden, seemingly self-destructive motion, but her ancestor wasn't harmed. Instead, she stirred the fires with her finger and pulled them up. A pillar of lavender smoke rose up. It contracted, becoming a sphere. "Gensokyo is a country that lies just beneath the surface of the Outside World, a tiny pocket of reality that few from there can even sense, much less reach. If one were to travel from that world to yours right after Gensokyo's creation, they would find that the two worlds are strikingly similar, with both having the same mountains, the same lakes, the same fields, and the same forests, almost mirror images of one another."

The sphere expanded and opened up like a donut, and within a second, smaller sphere hovered. "However, since then the two worlds have…changed, independent of one another. One drains a lake, while the other expands it. In one a forest is cut down, while in the other it grows to double the size. It is the same here." Both spheres, both the larger and the smaller, then changed shape, both reforming into something Satoko knew very well, the shape of her house. " _My_ orphanage was created the same time as yours, and at one time was identical." The smaller house of smoke left the larger, and floated over hover over Grandmother Aoki's palm. "Every child that has ever perished in your home left a piece that found its way into our care. Every child who died lost and alone out in the Wilds now has a place to go."

She then tossed the small house of smoke into the air, where it suddenly exploded in size, growing into something so much larger than the other house, becoming larger than a palace, larger than a village, large than a city.

As Satoko and Mokou both wrestled with the implications of what Grandmother Aoki was revealing, Miko sat up straight in shock. "Wait, hold up! Are you telling me that all those ghosts you have here are their actual souls, and not just the, you know, leftovers?"

Grandmother Aoki shook her head. She squeezed her fingers into a fist, and all the smoke rushed over to fill her grasp. "Everyone's death is unique, young lady." She opened her hand, and a tiny smoke person formed above it. "Most are taken by the Shinigami, yes, but all leave something behind." A smoke arrow shot the smoke person through the chest, and they died. When that happened, a cloaked figure appeared holding a tiny scythe appeared, and they stuck their hand into the corpse's chest to pull out a second tiny smoke person and lead them off, though not without leaving a wisp of smoke lingering over the corpse. "And every ghost, no matter how troublesome, still retains a piece of the soul they split off from, a piece that, if cared for and loved, will grow into a whole being." The tiny smoke wisp then grew and grew, until they were the same size as the person they had split off from. "They are born knowing nothing but pain and fear, a broken reflection of a poor child's last moments. But there is nothing that says that they have to stay that way."

Miko scowled. "Ever ghost I've ever dealt with has been nothing but malevolent. Even the ones that live long enough to become self-aware have always been hostile."

"When was the last time you had to exterminate a child's ghost?" Grandmother Aoki remarked.

"I…well." Miko frowned. "Very rarely, come to think of it."

Aoki tossed the smoke away, letting it dissipate. She looked over the small paradise she had created, and the generations of children she had gathered. "Those poor creatures you destroyed were wounds in the world, and have known nothing else. There was no one to help them, no one to heal them, so of course they grew into monsters. We are limited in what we can do, but thanks to my most excellent foresight, I was able to ensure that the children had a place to go at least."

Mokou raised her hand, just like one of their kids in class. "Right, okay, so let me see if I got this straight: you're the ghost of the original Yume, the one who built the orphanage. But you also did some kind of magicy mumbo jumbo to create _another_ orphanage on the same space, only in the spiritual realm, and you've gathered every ghost of every kid to ever die in Gensokyo?"

"Not every person that dies leaves a ghost, Miss Fujiwara. Not even the majority. And I only have here all those I could reach," Grandmother Aoki said. "Those who died in the Wilds, anyway. Those within the villages are usually…dealt with." Her face turned sour.

"Okay, but point is, all this time there's been like a shit-ton of ghosts living…or whatever you do…right there with us."

"That is essentially correct."

Mokou leaned back with her legs crossed and folded her hands over her knee. "And I'm guessing that when some jackass took our wards down, it also hit whatever it was that kept your world and ours separate."

Grandmother Aoki looked toward Satoko. "Your monster is quite intelligent, Granddaughter. Do not let her slip away. But yes, that is correct. Our respective houses are now bleeding into one another, and if the separation is not restored, then I fear for both of our survival."

"Oh," Satoko said. "Well, all right. Another problem." Her hands, neatly folded in her lap, began to shake. "Skinner wasn't enough. Sonozika wasn't enough. Being exiled wasn't enough. The spiders weren't enough. Eiko's ghost wasn't enough. The curse wasn't enough. Now this. On top of everything else, we now have this."

"Ah, yes," Grandmother Aoki said. "The curse. That reminds me."

"Damn it, that was _not_ an invitation to add more!"

"I got a whiff of it outside," Miko said. "What is it?"

Grandmother Aoki's countenance darkened. "I do not know. Since my passing, I have remained here, and much of what goes on in Gensokyo is a mystery to me. But whatever it is, it stinks of death."

"You would know, wouldn't you?" Mokou remarked.

"Don't be snide. Death is death, and most forms are perfectly natural, even the horrible ones. But this…" Grandmother Aoki shook her head. "This is not natural. It is more than the cessation of life. Granddaughter, I have _seen_ death. I have felt death. I live in death. But that thing? It is unlike anything I have ever touched. It is _evil._ Not just dangerous, but _evil,_ an evil that is very old, very cold, and desires nothing but harm."

"You got all that from its stench?"

"Didn't you?"

Mokou leaned back and tapped her finger against her mouth in thought. She said nothing.

As for Satoko, though she was not a person given often to self-pity, it was hard not to indulge in it now.

Why her? Why did…no, not that. Not her. Why _them?_ Why was so much bad happening to her kids? And why all at once? They didn't deserve this; no one did, especially not a group of orphaned children! How could the world be so cruel to do this to them?

"All right," Mokou said at last. "Things suck, but we can deal with it point by point. For you guys, we have to dig up the foundations and restore the runes, right? Then your house and ours won't be melting into one another, correct?"

"That is so," Grandmother Aoki confirmed.

"Good. That's one solution. And while we're busy with that…" Mokou looked over to Miko Hakurei. "Can you handle the curse?"

"Hmmm." Miko's brow furrowed. "Well, I'll have to get a closer look at it first. Which, obviously, will not be fun, but I've dealt with some pretty big curses in the past." Then she wrinkled her nose. "I guess if worst comes to worst, there's some people I can call upon to help."

"You don't look very enthusiastic about it," Mokou observed.

"I'm not. It's someone I'm not exactly on…speaking terms with right now. Still, if this is as bad as the ghosts says, which it probably is, then I should be able to drag her out of bed for this."

"Which just leaves us Skinner and his crew," Mokou said. "Vanilla mortals." She snorted. "Yeah, but they'll be the most complicated ones."

"I'm sorry," Grandmother Aoki said, her face screwing up in confusion. "Skinner?"

Mokou dismissively waved her hand. "This asshole from the Human Village that's been a royal bloody hemorrhoid for us. We're pretty sure he's the guy who cooked our wards."

"Ah. Well, I see that most of our fell Humans are just as cold-hearted and despicable as they were when I was alive," Grandmother Aoki said. "Still, while I do not envy you, at least you know the road ahead of you." She then looked to Satoko. "Granddaughter?"

Satoko breathed in and slowly exhaled. Her deceased ancestor was right. At least now they had an idea of what to do. She couldn't afford to wallow in her own misery. Her children needed her. Her fellow caretakers needed her. She had to be strong. For them.

Standing up, she said, "Well, you showed us what you wanted us to see. So I suppose we'd better get to work."

…

_Love is patient. Love is kind._

Of all of Joshua Stump's qualities, the two that had been the most refined over the years was his patience and his tolerance. He was slow to anger; he had to be. There had once been a time when that had not been the case, and it had cost him everything several times over. Building himself back up from the wreck he had been had taken time, endurance, and failure after failure. In time, and with the help of his Lord Jesus Christ, he had learned to wait, to think on his actions, and to let even the hardest of tasks play themselves out and see past that hardship.

Likewise, tolerance had been a lifelong lesson. He had seen the deepest dredges of humanity, both around him every time he had woken up feeling like shit, and whenever he looked into the mirror. The years he had spent weaning off the pills and the drink had given him empathy and understanding for those at their lowest, and wisdom to see the person behind the fist.

_It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud._

It had served him well after getting stuck in Gensokyo, and the years since had only added to it. Coming to grips with having his entire understanding of reality upturned had taken time, as had needing to reconcile his beliefs with the local state of things. He never lost faith in his God, but he had to admit, actually meeting and speaking to actual deities and demons made him question things on more than one occasion.

To that regard, deciding to devote his life to the orphanage and its wards had done him no end of good. Helping care for the children gave his life purpose, and his experiences meant that even the most trying child wasn't nearly as bothersome as they would be to most. He was doing good work now, and it had been a long time since had been genuinely angry.

But even with his nearly limitless patience and unending tolerance, there were still a few things capable of making him see red.

And Nathaniel Skinner's followers were swiftly rising to the top of that list.

_It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking._

When he heard the commotion from the others in their makeshift camp, he had first thought that it was something coming from the house (ghosts! Now ghosts were a thing! He had always heard of them of course, but there was a vast difference of being assured that ghosts were real and having one wake you with its screaming), but then he turned from the conversation he had been having with Shion to see some infuriatingly familiar figures gathered at the gate.

"Oh, you cannot be serious," Shion whispered.

Joshua said nothing. He licked his lips and made a low rumbling sound from deep within his chest.

"Are they back?" Haruhi said as she jogged over to the two. "Already?"

"Sure as hell looks like it," Shion told her.

Haruhi swallowed. "Th-Then we'd better go get Satoko. And Mokou!"

"They're still in the house," Joshua said, not taking his eyes from the intruders. "Dealing with the ghost."

"Oh. Then what do we…"

Joshua started to stride forward.

"…uh, Joshua? Josh? Where are…Josh!"

_It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs._

The blood was pounding in Joshua's ears, that old, familiar percussion. His war drums, he used to call them, back when their presence had been almost constant. Nowadays they served as a warning, a sign that Joshua needed to take a few steps back from whatever situation he was in and calm himself.

Not now though. Now he welcome them like the old friends that they were.

Skinner's men were gathered at the gate. There was only three of them this time, with the tall man that had served as Seiya Kirisame's minder now in the lead. He was a tall, young man, thin of frame and dark of hair, with a hawkish nose and piercing gold eyes.

As Joshua approached, he looked up and smiled. "Ah, Brother Joshua Stump! We've never formally met, but Brother Nathaniel had always been-"

"Get out," Joshua said.

The leader raised an eyebrow. "Get out? But we are out!" He nudged the gate with his foot. "We haven't set foot on your-"

"No," Joshua growled. "No word games, no runarounds. You are not welcome here, and you know why. So leave. Now."

"Hmmm." The leader glanced to his two companions and sighed. "All right, look: I know you have every reason to be upset with us, but shouldn't you at least hear what we have to say before you banish us? It's only the Christian thing to-"

He was standing quite close to the fence, which only went up to his waist. So Joshua had no problem reaching across with two meaty hands and seizing him by the lapels of his robe.

"-ah?"

_Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth._

Then Joshua pulled, hauling the man right off his feet and over the fence.

"Ah!"

The average Gensokyian man was a fair bit shorter than what Joshua had been used to seeing in America, and he was short even by Gensokyian standards. However, he was strong, and he knew how to make use of his strength, mass, leverage, and weight. So even if the man was a full foot and a half taller than him, when Joshua decided that he was going to forcibly bring him over the fence, then he was going.

_It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres._

Before the man could regain his composure, Joshua swung him around so that his spine slammed into the gate. "Now you're on our side," Joshua hissed. "That makes you a trespasser. So get the _fuck_ out."

If the man had known Joshua a little better, he might have been more taken back by the severity of the profanity than any promise of violence. Still, judging by the look in his eyes, Joshua was fairly certain that he got the point across.

…

It was very strange for Mokou to walk through the _other_ orphanage, perhaps moreso than for the other two women. For Miko it was probably just another day on the job, maybe a little more memorable than most but far from the strangest thing she had ever experienced, whereas Satoko had never really had to deal with anything more magical than the Gensokyo's everyday variety, certainly never anything on this level, so it was definitely a lifechanging event for her.

But for Mokou, though she refused to show it, the whole experience left her constantly on edge.

Mokou was immortal; but not only that, she was _very_ immortal, one that stood out even in a country full of immortals. To her, Death was simultaneously alien and familiar, something she had experienced countless times but would never truly know. Over the centuries, her body had expired and her brain shut down over and over again, and yet she had never, ever even got a glimpse of what lay on the other side. She was a frequent loiterer at the gates of Death, one that would never be permitted through, to the extent that even Komachi the Shinigami, whom Mokou had worked with a few times in the past, had declared her to be a "Total weirdo."

As such, actually setting foot and walking through what was, for all intents and purposes, a tiny, self-contained afterlife just felt _bizarre._ She was not supposed to be there, and both she and the other orphanage knew it. The air crackled around her in an unpleasant way, and every step with her bare feet tingled. It was only through the explicit invitation of the shade of Aoki Yume that she was permitted at all, and even that was given grudgingly.

She couldn't wait to get out of there. Yes, the visit was very interesting and the information given to them was very important, all well and good, but once their business had wrapped up, she was very eager to take her leave and never come back.

Even so, as Aoki Yume led them back to the world of the living, she saw something that made her pause.

"Hey," she said, nudging Satoko in the side. "Check it out."

They were passing by a conjunction in the hallway, and down the other route she saw the ghost of an older woman leading the ghost of a young girl away by the hand.

The girl was Eiko Goto.

The two of them stopped and stared. Though they knew that it wasn't really _their_ Eiko, it was still part of her.

"Does she know us?" Satoko asked.

Though the question was spoken in a near-whisper, Eiko must have sensed that she was being watched, as she paused and turned to look over her shoulder at them.

"Vaguely," Aoki told her. "She was born from your Eiko's final moments, not her entire life. She has flashes of old memories and feelings, but in time those fade like a dream."

A look of pain passed over Satoko's face. "So, everyone I recognized…like Kale and Tobi…they wouldn't know me."

"No," Aoki said. "I'm sorry."

Mokou frowned. "You seem to have a full working set of memories though."

"I'm different. As I prepared for death, I made sure that my soul would be bound to my shade, so that I might stay and continue my work. I am all of Aoki Yume."

That drew Miko's attention. "A ghost with a soul," she said, her eyes narrowing. "Like Mima."

Madam Mima was in many ways the most persistent threat Gensokyo faced and was most certainly the ancestral nemesis of the Hakurei family. A centuries-old ghostly sorceress, she had plotted to overthrow or destroy Gensokyo on numerous occasions, and had come closer than any other villain to pulling it off. More than one of the Hakurei Shrine Maidens had fallen at her hand, and every single one had faced off against her at one time or another.

As for Mokou, she also had encountered Mima a handful of times over the years, and not always in antagonistic fashion, some of which she was glad that Miko didn't know about.

Aoki, however, just looked lost. "I'm sorry, who?"

Miko choked. "Excuse me? _Who?_ Mima? Madam Mima? Are you seriously asking me who Madam Mima is?"

Aoki sniffed. "I have existed within a sub-dimension within an isolated orphanage for literal centuries, Miss Hakurei. The comings and goings of Gensokyo don't often reach us."

"Yeah, sure, but…Mima! She's been around forever! You know, ghostly spirit, green hair, pointy blue hat, real bitch?" When that failed to register any recognition, Miko pressed on. "Uh…Evil Spirit of Makai? Headed up the Serpentine Marauders? Grand Sorceress of the Order of the Poison Sky? Any of those ringing any bells?"

Aoki's stare remained blank.

"Oh, come on! She's only the biggest mass murderer in Gensokyo, and the one with the longest longevity! You have got to have several of her victims living here with you!"

"Memories don't carry over very well," Aoki said. "I'm sure their former selves know of all you're speaking of, but my children have forgotten most details."

"Mima's not a detail, she's a…a whole fucking point! As if in, one of the biggest!"

As the two argued, Mokou cast a long look over to Satoko, who was gazing longingly over to the young ghost staring back at them.

"Excuse us for a minute," Mokou muttered. Then she nudged Satoko with her elbow and tilted her head down the hall. Satoko nodded, and the two made their way toward the two spirits.

Neither Eiko nor her caretaker reacted much as the two living women approached them. Frankly, it was kind of unnerving. In life, Eiko had been a lot of things, but nonresponsive was definitely not one of them.

"Hey, do you mind?" Mokou said to the ethereal woman holding Eiko by the hand.

The ghost glowered. "If you attempt to harm her…"

"We won't," Mokou promised her. "Hell, I'm not sure that we could." The caretaker glanced down at Eiko, released her hand, and stepped back.

Satoko knelt on the floor in front of the child. "Um…Eiko," she said. "Do you remember me? It's Miss Satoko."

In life, Eiko had been a short and feisty girl with strawberry blonde hair that she kept tied back in a spiky bun, bright scarlet eyes, and a face full of freckles. That much remained true, except now she had an ethereal shimmer around her, even moreso than the other ghosts. And there was an odd transparency to her skin, one that none of the other ghosts Mokou had seen possessed.

There was no hint of recognition on Eiko's face as she gazed up at them, but she at least seemed to register their presence. She tilted her head to one side and stared.

"How about me?" Mokou said. "You know, Miss Mokou? The cook? Busted you sneaking into my kitchen plenty of times."

"And your friends! Haruko and Hayate. Do you remember them?" Satoko implored. "They miss you, Eiko."

Finally just the barest trace of a reaction passed through Eiko's eyes. She slowly tilted her head the other way, her forehead bunching up in the slightest of frowns.

"Fffff…" she started to say.

Satoko eagerly leaned in closer. "Yes?"

Then Eiko's skin faded, becoming fully translucent. Beneath it, Mokou saw hundreds of tiny black beads moving through her body, crawling right beneath the surface.

Spiders. She was full of spiders.

Then her skin regained color, thankfully hiding what was beneath. "…ffffrrrriiiieeeennnndssss?" Eiko said.

To Satoko's credit, the unexpected glimpse at what lay beneath only caused the slightest of winces. "Yes. Friends," she said. "Do you remember them?"

"Frrrieeennndssss," Eiko said again, musing on the word. Her voice sounded…wrong, very wrong. Like there was five Eikos, each one feeling a different emotion, and all were speaking at once.

Mokou laid a hand on Satoko's shoulder. "Maybe we'd better not," she whispered.

"But-"

The skin surrounding Eiko's mouth was starting to stretch, and something was wriggling inside. "Fffffrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeennnnn…"

Then the caretaker abruptly pulled her away. "That's enough," she said. "I know why you wanted to speak to her, but you're done. She is still young and delicate."

"I'm sorry," Satoko said. She felt shaken to her core. Grandmother Aoki had been so, well, Human, and all those children had seemed fairly normal save for their slight glow, that she had almost forgotten how Eiko's ghost had awoken them a few nights prior.

Without another word, the caretaker led Eiko away.

"It's hard, I know," Grandmother Aoki said as she walked up to Satoko. "Having to say goodbye twice."

Satoko slowly nodded. "Will she-" Her voice caught, and she tried again. "Will she ever, uh, remember?"

"No. In time what vague bits she has will also vanish, but that will allow her new self to grow. It's better that way."

"Oh. Ah, you are going to take care of her, right?"

"Of course I am. Now let's get you three home. There are matters among the living that require your attention."

…

It was one thing to be cursed.

It was something else entirely to be cursed and know that you were cursed, to be constantly aware of why the blood running through your veins now ran colder than it had, why your hand and arm tingled every time you moved it, and why a dark and malevolent voice whispered to you from deep within your mind.

On the one hand, it certainly made things scarier to not only know what was wrong with you, but that it was also the worst case scenario. It wasn't just some odd illness or your stressed-out mind playing tricks on you. Some kind of malicious magic had taken root in your soul, and it was slowly killing you from within.

On the other hand, it did make things…simpler.

And when Rumia saw the assholes responsible for all of her problems once again show up at her home to rub their ugly, smug noses in the mess they had created, her only thought was that Miss Mokou had isolated her and the other cursed kids away from everyone else for a reason, and she had found the perfect test subjects on which to figure out exactly what that reason was.

As she neared the little camp that she wasn't allowed to be a part of, the other kids saw her coming and immediately scattered. She didn't care. She heard someone calling for help, calling for someone to stop her. She didn't care. She heard Haruko yelling at her from somewhere behind her, telling her not to do it, that she would only make things worse. She didn't care. She had eyes only for her prey.

At the moment, her prey was actually being set upon by someone else. It was the carpenter, the follower of the White God. He had one of her prey by the lapels and was shouting at him while the other two rushed to their comrade's defense. Well, good for him, but he presented a problem. He would stop her.

Then again, he only had the two hands, and both of them were occupied with a single man. That did leave two others.

**Give in.**

She didn't, not fully, but she did dip in a little further, accepting a trickle of cold strength. It flowed into her limbs, making her stronger, faster, more agile. Her speed increased, and she was practically flying across the field.

Then the carpenter stopped wrestling. He must have sensed her coming, just like the shrine maiden, just like the immortal. He turned toward her, his dark, angry eyes going wide with alarm.

He was too late.

She bunched up her legs, crouching down low. And then she leapt.

…

This time, when Satoko, Mokou, and Miko passed from the other orphanage into their own, the house was as dark, quiet, and empty as it was supposed to be. With both the living and the dead gone, it felt abandoned, a lonely corpse of a home.

And if something wasn't done soon, that was exactly what it would become.

"You know, as weird as all that was, we're actually in a better place than we were," Mokou said as the three made their way to the front door.

"Yeah?" Miko said. "And how's that?"

"Well, now we know what we gotta do. You take care of that curse, while we dig up the foundations and figure out the runes we need to restore. We can have everything supernatural sorted by midnight, which just leaves us-."

"Mokou. Shut up," Miko said harshly. "Right now."

"Huh?"

The aging shrine maiden slowly breathed in and exhaled. "I appreciate that your…durability and, ah, _uncomplicated_ choices in lifestyle might have made you forgot the necessity of luck in such matters, but not all of us are guaranteed to make it through this in one piece."

"Your point?"

"My point is that I would greatly appreciate it if you wouldn't say or do anything that would attract the attention of anything that might wish to screw us over for a laugh."

Mokou snorted. "Really, Miko? Superstition? You?"

"Yes, Fujiwara! In case you've forgotten, I happen to be the expert in these things! And I would appreciate it very fucking much if you wouldn't chance it! So. Keep. Your. Mouth. _Shut!"_

"Do you two hear that?" Satoko wondered out loud.

The three were in the main room, close to the door. Miko and Mokou stopped their argument to turn their attention toward the house's proprietor.

"Hear what?" Miko said.

"Shhh." Mokou held up a hand. "Listen."

From somewhere a distance away outside, they could hear the sound of raised voices, and frantic ones at that. At least one person was screaming, maybe more than one.

"Really?" Mokou said. "We leave for half an hour, and already things go wrong?"

"I _told_ you!" Miko hissed. "I did!"

Satoko didn't bother to join in their spat. She just ran.

She burst through the front door and out into the sunlight. After spending so much time in either the dark or the strange, ghostly lighting of the other orphanage, the Sun's natural light was almost like a physical barrier at first, and it made her reel. She blinked several times to clear away the spots and tried to make sense of the field of blurs that passed for her sight.

As her vision cleared, so did the situation. The camp was nearly abandoned, and now almost everyone was gathered near the gate. There, she saw Joshua and Haruna struggling with…someone. It looked like one of the kids, and they were trying to pull her off of…

Brown robes. There were three people Satoko recognized, and they all had brown robes.

They were back.

Satoko's fear and distress smoothed themselves out, making way for a piping hot serving of rage.

"Hey, wait a minute," Mokou said as she joined Satoko on the front porch. "Ain't those-"

"Yes," Satoko said, and she leapt, taking flight and soaring less than a meter over the grass, zipping straight toward the commotion.

The child Joshua and Haruna were struggling with turned out to be Rumia, which was both distressing and entirely unsurprising. One of the brown-robed men was recoiling back, holding onto his arm while one of his companions pulled him back through the open gate. As for the rest of Satoko's household, they were all gathered in a group close enough to see everything that was going on but far enough not to be hit by anything. The children were all shouting words of encouragement for Rumia and jeers at the brown-robed men, a scene that reminded uncomfortably of the riot at the market.

Later. She would deal with that later. For now, she had someone else to deal with first.

Despite Rumia's bloodthirsty thrashing, Joshua and Haruna had managed to drag her a fair distance away from the trespassers, so Satoko somersaulted in midair and landed on her feet right between the two parties. "What," she demanded, her voice ringing through the air, "is the meaning of this?!"

The shouting all stopped at once, and the gaggle of children immediately looked shamefaced. Not so much with the trespassers.

One of the brown-robed men, one that Satoko recognized from the group that had crashed Eiko's funeral, thrust a hand at Rumia. "That little monster bit Rito on the arm!"

Sure enough, the man identified as Rito had the long sleeve of his robe rolled up, and there were visible puncture marks that were bleeding freely. As for Rumia, she had a bloody smear all across her face. And the way she was staring at Rito's neck said that she wanted more.

"And this _Outsider_ assaulted me!" the speaker continued, now pointing out Joshua. "I wished only to talk, and he seized me and pulled me over the fence!"

The surprise was almost enough to make Satoko forget her anger. "Joshua?" she said, turning toward the man in question. This sort of thing was to be expected from Rumia, but not him.

For his part, Joshua at least looked a little ashamed. "It's true," he said. "But after what they had done-"

"They deserved it!" Tomohiro shouted.

"Yeah! Hit 'em again!" Yoshi threw in.

"Kids' got a point," Mokou said as she came in for a sudden landing. "If Josh hadn't, then I would." Her hand bunched into a fist, making the knuckles pop. "Hell, I just might anyway."

"You!" the speaker gawked.

"Me," Mokou agreed. "What, did that fireball not get the point across? You. Are. Not. Welcome. Here!"

Satoko found herself suddenly torn. Under normal circumstances, she would be sharply admonishing her children and caretakers. Violence was to be abhorred, no matter who it was enacted against. On the other hand, these might just be the exceptions to the rule, especially considering what they did at the funeral.

Then, before, her better sense could motivate her to keep things from devolving further, her internal alarm bells went off. At the same time, sounds of dismay rose up from those gathered. Something was coming.

She turned to see the rest of the cursed children heading over and everyone else quickly making way for them. And the way they were approaching sent chills down her spine.

They weren't running. They weren't even moving quickly. Rather, they were striding forward in a relaxed, but determined, gait. There was purpose in their steps, no anger, no fear, no real emotion at all. And they were all walking in perfect synchronization. Even Kana, who had stopped coughing.

And the way that all their faces were focused on the brown-robed men told her what that purpose was.

"Wait, stop!" Satoko said, placing herself in front of them. They ignored her.

"Kohta! Hayate? Listen to me: go back right now!"

They didn't so much as look at her.

Sighing, Mokou pushed Satoko aside and took her place. "All right, if this is how it goes," she said. "Don't want to hurt you, but…" Then she frowned. "Hey, wait. Why are we stopping them? Because I'm thinking we should just let them clean house and be done with it."

"Are you _mad?"_ Satoko demanded. "You're going to let our children commit murder?"

There was a pause, and then Mokou said, "Fuck, good point. Hey, Shion?"

Nodding, Shion stepped forward and held her hand out. The air in front of the marching children began to shimmer.

They walked right into the disruption of reality, and for a moment their bodies jiggled and warped like they were being seen through a glass of water.

Then the disruption collapsed, and Shion reeled back with a cry of pain. The cursed continued to move forward.

"Rumia?" Joshua said. "Rumia, wait! What are you doing?"

Satoko looked. The little girl had gripped both of Joshua's big arms with her hands and was slowly prying them apart. Though he ought to have been able to hold her with ease, she was slowly forcing his arms open, all the while not taking her eyes off the dumbstruck intruders.

Then, before violence could finally erupt, a voice shouted out from above, "IMPRISONMENT SIGN: ISOLATION WHEEL!"

A bolt of energy struck the ground in the middle of everyone, and Satoko was suddenly blown back, helpless as a leaf in a whirlwind. She lost sight of everything as her vision filled with colors, mainly hot scarlets twisting against sparkling violets and blinding whites.

When she could see again, she found herself in a most peculiar situation.

She was hovering in the sky, which wasn't too odd, considering that she could fly. What was odd was that she wasn't flying, but was hanging suspended by what appeared to be a large bubble. What was more, she was sharing it with Joshua, Shion, Haruhi, and Haruna, all of them just as perplexed as she was.

Satoko peered out through the bubble's skin. The best she could tell, there was now a huge glowing six-pointed star hovering several meters above the ground, and at the end of each point was a bubble. She and the other caretakers were in one, the brown-robed men had one of their own, the cursed children were all in one, the untainted kids were separated into two bubbles, and Mokou was by herself in the last.

The star was slowly rotating, the bubbles and their prisoners traveling with it, and in the center of it all floated Miko Hakurei. The shrine maiden had her arms folded over her chest and was glaring at everyone like an irritated schoolteacher.

…

Miko was pissed. Granted, it didn't take much to anger her, and the things that tended to anger her happened on a nearly daily basis, but uppity youkai were one thing. Uppity Humans had a real way of getting under her skin.

"You know, I'm used to jobs taking stupid turns and becoming stupidly complicated, but this is a whole new level of stupid," she said crossly. "The fuck is the matter with you all?"

The one doing the speaking for the intruders stared at her. "I'm sorry," he said. "Who are you?"

"Miko Hakurei," she said. "Your turn."

"Miko _Hakurei?!_ As if in, the Hakurei Shrine Maiden?!"

"Yeah, and if any of you had ever taken a trip to my shrine like you're supposed to, we would've-"

"What are you _doing?!"_ he cried. "You're supposed to be protecting Humans!"

Miko glanced around. "And would you take a look at that: I've protected you. there you are, safe and sound. You probably don't deserve it, but I don't usually have the luxury of discriminating."

"They attacked us!"

"Yes, that's what usually happens when troublemakers show up in places where they're not welcome. Didn't you already get kicked out before? And with good reason too. Crashing a dead kid's funeral. My oh my, and they say I have no manners." Without waiting for an answer, Miko looked from one face to the next. "Let's see…you might not know me on sight, but I do know you. You're Rito Kirisame, correct? Son of the shopkeeper? And…that unfortunate victim of an angry little girl would be Satoshi Yuuki, the weaver's son. And your foreign friend would be Robert Forester."

Rito Kirisame's eyes narrowed. "How do you know who we are?"

Miko glanced over to Mokou's bubble. The entrapped immortal seemed like she was enjoying the spectacle and was leaning back against the bubble's wall with her hands in her pockets with a savage grin on her face.

"I got a tip that a new religion of assholes was busy making trouble for a bunch of orphans," Miko said. "So I looked into it. Sure enough, there is. And when I popped over here to scope things out, what do I find? Sabotaged wards, youkai attacks, and invading evil spirits." All of that was technically true, though it would be better if they didn't know the full details. "They get attacked in the village market and banished, and then someone decides to take down all of their protection charms, and then a group of youkai from the Youkai Forest gets stirred up into attacking them, and while they're still burying their dead, someone decided to set a bunch of evil spirits loose in their house, forcing an evacuation. And when I showed up to try to clean things up, who should show up but the same pricks who started the whole thing? I'd say you got off light. I woulda been tempted to take a chomp out of you too."

A cheer went up from the two bubbles holding the uninfected kids. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Miko felt a small twinge of gratitude. It was nice to be appreciated.

Nathaniel Skinner's three acolytes, however, weren't so appreciative. In fact, they had all gone quite pale. "Are you suggesting that _we_ had anything to do with that?" Rito said. "Preposterous! I pr-promise you-"

"Don't," Miko said. "And I haven't suggested anything, just pointing out how things look. You've done everything to make yourself an enemy of…orphans. Of _orphans!_ Now you dare show your faces here again?"

Rito swallowed. "We came to…"

"Yes?" Mokou hissed.

"To apologize. That's why we're here. To apologize."

The world went silent.

Miko hovered in place, glaring through narrowed eyes at her captives while her mind raced. Well now, this was an unexpected turn. Not that she believed it for a moment. Those emboldened by misguided self-righteousness never admitted wrong, and were often shameless in their manipulative tactics. Besides, nothing was ever that easy.

But even so, one of the many things she had learned in a lifetime of dealing with beings more powerful and more cleverer than herself was that a change in tactics meant a change in the enemy's situation. Something was up, and if recent history was any indication, it most likely did not bode well for the residents of the Aoki Yume's Children's Home.

"Repeat that," she growled. "Slowly."

Rito Kirisame looked her dead in the eye. He drew himself up to his full height and said, "Brother Nathaniel has-"

"No, wait," Miko interrupted. "Not like this."

She snapped her fingers, and the spinning star-wheel vanished. The bubbles containing the residents of the Aoki Yume's Children's Home all drifted down onto the grass and popped, releasing them. At the same time, the bubble holding the robe-wearers took them to the other side of the fence, outside of the orphanage's territory, before releasing them.

Miko came down to stand on one of the gate posts. "All right," she said. "You have your audience. Speak your message."

For one moment, one so very brief moment, Rito Kirisame glanced at Miko with a look of utter hatred. Had Miko not been staring straight at him, she would have missed it, as a moment later Rito bowed his neck and shoulders, as if weighed down by guilt, as a look of remorse and sorrow covered his face.

"We have come on behalf of the First Gensokyo Baptist Fellowship," he said, raising his voice so all could hear. "And Brother Nathaniel Skinner, to apologize for our overzealous and needlessly cruel treatment of the children of the Aoki Yume's Children's Home."

"Excuse me?" Satoko said as she strode forward. Credit had to be given, for someone who was unused to this sort of thing and had been frightened several times over the last few hours, she was still standing. "You have done nothing but demean and isolate us. You've actively tried to cut us off from our neighbors, you trespassed when we were burying one of our own, and now you're…sorry?"

"You say nothing untrue, Lady Yume," Rito said solemnly. "In our struggles against the forces of darkness, we listened to fear and struck against innocents. Even our Lord Jesus Christ spoke out against taking up the sword against children, and we still failed. For that I offer no excuse."

Mokou scowled. "Well, isn't that sweet. Tell me: what brought this change of heart? Because I've met Skinner all of once, and even I could tell that he's not the sort of guy to just change his mind."

"You do not know Brother Nathaniel like I do. Believe me, he can be hasty, but will always seek to right his wrongs."

Miko glanced first over to Joshua Stump, who was sighed and pressing two fingertips to his forehead, and then to Mokou, who was openly rolling her eyes. It was clear that neither were buying what Rito Kirisame was selling, nor should they.

Then she looked over to Satoko, whose face was cold, yet neutral. The wheels in her head were turning, and Miko would bet a lot of money that she was reaching many of the same conclusions.

"Your message has been delivered," Satoko said coldly. "Now leave."

"Ah, well, we were hoping for a response to take back…"

"You have it. But if need something to take back to Skinner, then tell him this: we have heard his words and will take them under consideration. But we will contact _him,_ not the other way around, and only when the time is right. Do not send anyone else, do not try to pressure an answer out of us. Let us decide in our own time, and until then, _leave us alone!"_

At this, Rito Kirisame's eyes narrowed. "That is _not-"_

Mokou curled her hands into fists. Her fingers started to glow like heated fireplace pokers while the air around them shimmered with heat.

Rito swallowed. "Er, ah, I mean, understood. We will…We will depart in peace."

"Good," Satoko said. She rolled her wrist in the direction of the road. "Then get to it."

Skinner's acolytes all glanced at each other. Then they turned and hurried down the road before leaping into the air and flying off.

Everyone silently watched them leave until they had disappeared over the horizon.

Then everyone started talking at once.

Everyone, from the children to the caretakers, all started shouting, questioning, crying, and just filling the air with voices, all of them demanding attention, all of them wanting everything from an explanation, answers, comfort, to just…noise.

Shaking her head, Mokou stuck her pinkies into her mouth and whistled loudly. That shut everyone up.

"All right, everyone," she said. "Listen up! Yes, we are still in a lot of trouble. However, we think we now know how to fix a few of our problems. But no, we don't trust those assholes for a second. However, before we can deal with them, we need to handle our problems here and home. Fortunately, we now know more about those, so we can get started taking care of them. But in the meantime, we're going to need all of you to stay patient and stay _calm!"_

"But the ghost!" Shinji cried. "What about the ghost?"

"What did you do to her?" Hayate demanded. "What did you do to Eiko?"

"Uh, yeah! That's part of it." Mokou glanced over to Satoko. "Satoko, can you explain things? Me and Miko have a lot of work to do."

"Of course," Satoko said wearily. "Thank you."

As Satoko faced her household to try to explain why their home had suddenly become so haunted, Mokou went over to Miko, and, without a word, the two of them went off by themselves to have some measure of privacy.

"So," Mokou said. "I suppose some delegation is called for."

Miko nodded. "Agreed. I'll focus on the curse. You and the other caretakers can dig up the foundations and restore the runes."

"Close," Mokou said. _"They_ can deal with the runes. I'm going to deal with our… _mortal_ problems."

At this, Miko's eyes narrowed. "You realize that if you try to murder a Human, I might have to do something about it, right?"

"Even if that Human hired youkai to murder children?"

Miko's lips thinned out.

"And he's protected by the Human Leader? So, mortal justice would be straight out."

Miko breathed out through clenched teeth. "Don't do this to me, Mokou. Don't ask me to look the other way."

Mokou shrugged.

"I'm serious. I hate the asshole too, but-"

"Not nearly as much as I do," Mokou said.

"You don't even know for sure if he's behind it."

"Yeah, I do." Then Mokou's lips lifted in a terrifying smile. "But fine, I wasn't going to move against him right away. I still have a little digging to do, and I'm not doing anything until I have proof. And hey, if it makes you feel better, I'll run my response by you so you can help me workshop it into something that offend your delicate mortal sensibilities. How's that sound?"

"Bullshit," Miko said. "You'll just do whatever you feel is necessary, no matter what I say."

Mokou shrugged.

"And how exactly do you plan on getting this proof? It's not like you're exactly welcome in the Human Village."

"Oh, well," Mokou said. "I have…a source."

…

There was a shed near the back of the orphanage's property. In it was stored Joshua's gardening and maintenance tools, repair supplies, the wagon, and other odds and ends needed to keep the old house in a livable state.

Furthermore, there was a basement, and in that basement were several bags of rice, barrels of dried vegetables, and other foodstuffs that would keep for a long time.

It was into that basement Mokou headed, in the dead of the night, when everyone was either sleeping or trying to.

She hadn't been followed. She had made sure of that, and there was no in her household that was even capable of following her without her noticing. Which was good, as this wasn't something she wanted the kids to see.

Mokou opened the shed, the rusty hinges on the old, weathered wood doors creaking. She looked around the darkened structure, at the silhouettes of bags, barrels, and tools. She blinked once, and her eyes took on a distinct scarlet glow, allowing her to see as easily in the shadows as she could in the light.

There was no one else in the shed. Her secret had been undiscovered.

Good.

Closing the door behind her, she walked over to the trap door in the ground. Kneeling down, she grabbed onto the iron rings and pulled it open, revealing a rough wooden staircase that descended into the earth.

The sound of raspy, pained breathing could then be heard, coming from the hole.

Mokou descended the steps. As she did, she noted with some amusement that she was now on level with the corpses of many of those ghosts she had just met. The graveyard wasn't too far from the shed, and the shed's basement was more-or-less on level with many of the bodies that had been buried.

Rather fitting, considering what she intended to do.

As she went down further, the troubled breathing grew louder. Mokou stepped off the stairs and onto the cool dirt ground. She walked past rows of barrels and burlap bags, heading to the far end.

She reached one barrel in particular, stowed in the far corner of the basement. It was from within the barrel that the breathing could be heard.

Without a word Mokou pulled the lid off the barrel. Within was a shapeless form wrapped up in a black sheet tied with rope. She seized it and yanked it out. As she did, she heard a muffled cry of surprise and fear.

Mokou dragged the lump to the center of the room and tossed it one-handed onto the floor. She seized the sheet with both hands and ripped it open to dump its contents onto the ground.

It was the male spider-youkai. Well, most of him, at least.

He was naked, his once-pale skin now black, purple, and blue with bruises and burns and glistening with sweat and other fluids. What was more, he was now missing all of his limbs, his arms, legs, and even his penis all gone, leaving nothing but blackened circles where they had been, cauterized by Mokou's fire. His slobbering mouth was gagged by several layers of tape, but his eyes were wide open and staring in fear.

If he had been Human, he probably would have expired from his injuries a long time ago. Alas, he was youkai, which made him hardier than mortals. What was more, even if he did die, he would just come back.

Alas.

Mokou's fingers began glowing, and she reached down with one hand for his face. The spider reflexively jerked his head back, but that didn't stop her from grabbing his gag. It burned at her touch, and fell apart with one yank, though it left thin lips burned.

"Pah!" he spat out a wad of mucus, saliva, blood, and…other stuff. "Stop. Please, I begs yah!"

"Shut up," Mokou said, stomping her foot onto his chest, making him cry out in pain.

"Now listen," she continued, applying more pressure as she talked, making him squirm and writhe. "I'm going to ask you some questions, and you are going to answer. For every bit of backtalk, every delayed answer, I hurt you some more. But if you tell me everything I want to know…" She eased up, just enough so he could talk.

"You'll let me go?" he said. "Like _dis?"_

"So what?" she said. "Die, and your body will just come back, good and new, won't it? Hell, tell you what: you be a good little bug and cooperate, and I'll immolate you in like less than a second. You won't feel a thing, and from there, your youkai energies can do their thing. Once you come back, you're free to go, no strings attached. How's that sound?"

He swallowed, a gooshy, phlegmy sound. "Prummise?"

"Prummise," Mokou grinned. "So now, my little bug. Let's _talk."_


End file.
